Installation view of Richard Slee: Mantelpiece Observations, Bolton Library and Museum. Photo by Joel Fildes
Hales is delighted to announce that Mantelpiece Observations, a solo exhibition by Richard Slee on view at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery, having toured from the Bolton Library and Museum.
Slee’s new ceramics have been inspired by Mass Observation's 1937 Mantelpiece Reports. Mass Observation (MO) was a pioneering social research organisation which aimed to document everyday life in 1930s Britain. Its first initiative, the Mantelpiece Directive, tasked its national panel of volunteers with sharing what was on their mantelpieces. The resulting reports demonstrate how the seemingly insignificant objects in our homes are in fact full of meaning, and led the organisation to conclude that we are what we live with. Slee has also drawn inspiration from the work of the Mass Observation photographer, Humphrey Spender, who is best-known for his documentary images of Bolton in the 1930s.
Richard Slee
Mantelpiece Observations
19 New Church Road
Hove
BN3 4AB
26 July 2021 - 25 January 2022
