*CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE* Heather Ross: The Losses

Hatton Gallery is closed until further notice following COVID-19 advice

This exhibition is the culmination of Heather Ross’s practice- based PhD research into the work of artist Kurt Schwitters, specifically focusing on his Merz Barn Wall.

The objects and materials presented respond to the Hatton Gallery’s archive, focusing on the movement of the ‘Wall’ from its original site in the Lake District in
1965, to its restoration and re-contextualisation in the Hatton Gallery.

Kurt Schwitters’ one-man art movement ‘Merz’ sought to re-think discarded or fragmentary everyday materials by re-using and re-purposing them for the creation of new artwork. 

The Losses refers to a term used in conservator’s reports, to describe the ephemera (or fragments) which have been detached or become displaced from the original artwork. 

In this exhibition, Ross employs Schwitters’ ‘Merz’ philosophy to consider how ‘the losses’ might be repurposed, reconstructed or reformed to offer new readings of his Merz Barn Wall. In addition, how the language of conservation, restoration and archival study - as constantly evolving activities - form part of the viewer’s experience of engaging with the Wall as a fragment itself, which continues to be re-imagined.

The artist would like to thank the following people for their help, guidance and support:
Robert Mullender-Ross; Fred Brookes; Chris Jones; Helen Golding Miller; Northern Bridge
Consortium and The Artlab Contemporary Print Studios team (The University of Central
Lancashire): Tracy Hill; Magda Stawarska Beavan; Kathryn Poole and Nick Rhodes.