All The Better To Hear You With

Abstract

All The Better To Hear You With is a multi- disciplinary performative installation comprising of print and sound based responses to site.

The work centres around the re-activation of an old Jardine Treadle press, housed at Merz Barn - previously belonging to the late printmaker Gwyneth Alban Davis who was resident there throughout the 1940's (at the same time as Kurt Schwitters). During this period Gwyneth founded a one woman printmaking business; operating out of a reclaimed horse drawn caravan from the woods - she called this 'The Caravan Press.' This body of work employs Gwyneth’s press as a tool for connecting with the history and rural setting of the Merz Barn site, the performances, poetry and writing of Kurt Schwitters and the book, ‘Kurt Schwitters in England’ by Stefan Themerson.

The work was made between Merz Barn Cumbria and with the support of ArtLab, UCLan. The work was supported by UCLan.

It will be exhibited through solo exhibition on the weekend of the 24th/25th of June in Merz Barn.