Andromeda – The Art House

The Andromeda exhibition opened at The Art House, Wakefield, on Saturday 8th July, and ran until 16th September 2023

The exhibition was the culmination of a project I started in 2018, inspired by a local story.

In the town of Knottingley, there was a glass factory called Bagley Glass. In the 1930’s they made a popular figurine called Andromeda. It was so popular that the factory workers would pinch the figurine to take home. To stop them, the factory would occasionally hire the local police to search the workers as they crossed the bridge over the canal between the factory and town. To avoid being arrested, the workers would throw the figurines into the canal, to possibly retrieve them later.

The local myth claims that the canal at Knottingley is lined with these figurines.

I found an original Andromeda figurine on eBay, so in September 2019, I set off to walk alongside the canal as it made its way from Knottingley to the port of Goole (the eventual destination for the original figures on their way to the rest of the world).

It is 28km from Knottingley to Goole. I tied the figurine to a length of rope and, every kilometre, I threw the figurine into the canal, photographing the splash as it hit the surface. The walk from Knottingley to Goole generated 28 photographs of splashes. Because the canal is a long linear structure, I could line the photographs up and overlay a musical stave, so that each splash became a note. In doing so, I generated a 28-note tune.

In June 2023, I hired a barge and musicians, and played the 28-note sequence, in reverse order, as we made the return journey from Goole to Knottingley.

The exhibition contains a 3D printed human-size enlarged sculpture of the original Andromeda figurine (made from a 3.4km long continuous line of filament over a continuous 7-day and 3-hour period), film of the barge journey and performances by John Mayson, music, sound recording and performance by Duncan Chapman and additional visual material from me.

The exhibition is curated by The Art House’s Program Director, Damon Jackson-Waldock

All photographs by Emily Ryalls