All The Better to Hear You With...My Dear Gwyneth

Abstract

I will present my current research projects: All The Better to Hear You With and All The Better To See You With: Making Visible the Archive of Gwyneth Alban Davis.

These projects centre around the re-activation of an old printing press, housed at Merz Barn (Cumbria) and 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.'

I will discuss how my practice based research has developed in conjunction with printmaking as a process; how this has led to deeper engagement with the work and ideas of Kurt Schwitters and to the re-creation of Gwyneth Alban's archive, unseen since the 1950's.