‘Flours’ at Ayscoughfee Hall

Since Sliced Bread  at Ayscoughfee Hall Museum is the culmination of an immersive year of artistic research into the Windmills and communities of Lincolnshire by visual philosopher Fi Burke. This fresh body of work presents a unique way of looking at our relationship with the ‘Field to Fork’ journey. It binds social history, food heritage and contemporary art, integrating the voices of Millers, rural communities and the land itself. Fi eschews the official exhibition area in favour of a series of site reflexive artistic responses.

In the Medieval brick Undercroft, a field of hand made white windmills are placed in an enigmatic grid, reflecting on the unsung roles of Millers and farmers, in our lives throughout history. The field adopts the standard layout of WW1 cemeteries in France; echoing the linear layout of the drains in the fens. These Windmills are redundant, trapped in a windless vault, reflecting in part on the defunct Windmills that once powered the nation’s food baskets. It is a eulogy to the land and its cycles – to the wind and to the soil.

Upstairs in the Hall, Fi explores and subverts the historic depictions of local landmarks by temporarily displacing them with digitally printed pieces evolved in reaction to present day visits – illustrating the changes in land use as well as the continuity of life. In the display vitrines, Fi choreographs multiple terracotta flowerpots, spouting proverbs on lolly sticks, written by local residents to create a garden of wisdom. Other pieces appropriate cupboards and nooks and crannies to infiltrate the architecture of Ayscoughfee Hall

The exhibition runs from October 8th to December 14th, 2014.
Wednesday – Sunday between 10.30am and 4pm.
Admission is free.

Ayscoughfee Hall Tel: 01775 764555 or email museum@sholland.gov.uk