“ONE FOR SORROW’

DENBY STREET NURSERY MEMORY TRAIL May 2005

Denby Street Nursery was Sheffield’s oldest public nursery and was closed just before Christmas 2004. I got access to the building which was still full of nursery equipment and abandoned paraphernalia, and spent two months as unofficial artist in residence. It was like being an archeologist, sifting through the remains of 70 years’ worth of childhood relics.

Using what was already there, I created a trail through the building for participants to walk through as gradually they were led deeper into the heart of the school and inevitably into their own memory banks of childhood - travelling through personal memory until it at some point it becomes collective, referencing stories that all children recognise, as finally they reach a room straight out of a fairy tale, a magical red room with velvet curtains, a flying bed and a roaring (fake) fire.

installation