Reformations: an exhibition in Trinity Hall’s Old Library

The theme of ‘Reformations’ encompasses both the transformation of ideas and the recycling and re-forming of materials. It also makes reference to the originating period of Trinity Hall’s Old Library, which was built in the wake of the Reformation. I chose to make all the pieces out of recycled silver and other reused materials to reflect on deep histories of matter in the face of the environmental crisis.

These associations came together in the first piece, ‘M E T A M O R P H O S I S’, which has also been exhibited in a show about wearable words at the Baltimore Jewellery Centre in the US. I framed original printed letters that were once part of early modern books and reconfigured them into a word that expresses their extraordinary material lifecycle. These letters began as flax plants before being spun into thread and woven into garments. When the linen wore out, it was pulped into rag paper before being bound into books.