Short stories and images made as part of a residency at Snibston Discovery Park, Leicestershire, inspired by conversations with staff and investigation of the objects they look after. The work was premiered at an event in May 2011, as part of an ongoing series of art installations across the site. The first phase of this was an installation of a large format handmade book (part of an exhibition of images, texts and objects) made with inkjet prints on watercolour paper – which offered a new object for the collection. (Thanks to the bookbinding skills of Pauline Rafal for assistance with this latter part). A sample story can be found below. The work was also released on the museum web site in weekly instalments to reach a different audience.

You can now download a 54 page pdf  which combines the stories and images ‘Some Things We Choose to Remember, Some Things We Choose to Forget’ as double page spreads – or viewable as single pages A 52 page pdf of photo documentation ‘from morning till night’, a record made over a few days at Snibston – in the process of getting to know people – can also be downloaded here.

Sample Story

Business As Usual
Due to his arthritis, her Father relied on her to sound the siren when it was needed, and that was often. She takes some grim satisfaction in this task, winding it till her arm ached. The mournful wail of the siren, deeper than the whistle of a bomb, louder than crying children, worse than a scream. No streetlights, the windows blacked out, the sky rumbling, a bang that shakes the bed, Mother mumbling cheerfully, Lord preserve us, that was a near one…

She can recall the first war against the Hun, when the horrors of aerial bombardment of civilians was not a nightly affair. She remembers back then, a four year old looking out the window one grey wintry evening, seeing that giant cylindrical balloon drifting over the town. She did not have the words for it then. It was a baffling spectacle, a ghost in the mist, a phantasm. After this childhood vision, for years she dreams of flying. Amy Johnson becomes her heroine. She tries to imagine being thousands of feet in the air, cocooned in the intense cold, the compass and flight instruments freezing up, the weight of the ice on the airship making it cumbersome to control, the feeling of being lighter than air.

Later she learns the strange name given to this creature – Zeppelin – and its brutish purpose. This floating object, which carries men from the Imperial German Navy above her house, drops bombs on Loughborough, mistaking it for Liverpool. At first old Kaiser Bill says he will not target London and no attacks will be made on historic, government buildings or museums. He isn’t true to his word. How much worse it is now, over two decades on. As Flanagan and Allen defiantly sing ‘Poor old soul, you’ll need a rabbit-hole… So, run Adolf, run Adolf, run, run, run’, an inferno rains down from the sky, and our lads over the Ruhr wreak out death and destruction too and half of them not returning.

The dirigible she saw on that far away day, that foretold the future, loses its way over Scotland some months later. Damaged by ground fire, it drifts towards the Norwegian coast. As it runs out of fuel, it hits the cliff and the crew jump out, several breaking their legs. The hydrogen filled envelope skims the calm surface of the fjord and the Norwegians burn it.

The warning of a raid comes through, breaking her reverie. She rushes to the siren.

Notes and Reference: Business as usual – Hand operated World War 2 air raid siren.

Every village, town and city in the United Kingdom used to have a network of dual-tone sirens to warn of incoming air raids during World War Two.  These were then kept to use as warnings of a nuclear attack.  With the end of the Cold War, the siren network was decommissioned in 1993 and very few remain.  In 1937, the government created an Air Raid Wardens’ Service and during the next year recruited around 200,000 volunteers.  They were responsible for the sounding of the sirens, reporting damage, sealing off affected areas, taking people to shelters, and notifying the emergency services.  They helped to clear the streets of debris, and enforced the blackout regulations.

‘Deeper than a whistle, Louder than a cry,  Worse than a scream’ was how Langston Hughes described an air raid siren in his 1937 poem ‘Air Raid Barcelona’.

Amy Johnson (1903-1941), born in Hull, was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930.

Flanagan and Allen were popular music hall comedians, who changed the lyrics of the 1939 song ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ to make fun of the Germans during the Blitz.  It was said to be Churchill’s favourite song.

Zeppelin L20 flew over Coalville on the 31st January, 1916.  It bombed Loughborough, killing ten people and injuring eight.  The target of the raid was actually Liverpool.  Navigation by night proved difficult for the crews, even for an airship standing still in the sky trying to get a fix on its position either visually or by a radio bearing from Germany.  The L20 ran out of fuel after a raid on Scotland on 3rd May 1916 – damaged by ground fire, it drifted over the North Sea and eventually crash landed near Stavanger, Norway.  The Norwegians, fearing the dirigible would blow over the nearby town, fired into the wreckage floating on the fjord, which exploded and burned.