Mad, Bad ....

 The latest archive project that I am involved in has the title of ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know’.

I’ve found it quite difficult to get into.

There is a wealth of information in the Lancashire archives from constabulary and hospital records which not only have details of peoples crimes/condition but also contain photographs. The stories are in the main very sad, coming out of illness and/or poverty. It didn’t seem right to use them as fodder.

I started to type key phrases, such as ‘highway robbery’ into the archive database to see what these would produce and came across a collection of printed police handbills from the 1870’s.

They were distributed round various police stations and posted on the streets asking for information about various crimes/criminals. The use of language in some of these is fascinating and even if they come with a name it doesn’t feel intrusive unlike the hand written records and photographs.

I’m playing with format at the moment. I don’t want to produce a flat image and would like something to tell some of the stories that jumped out at me.

I had thought about making a toy theatre but I’m interested in the characters and figures on a stage can tend to get a bit lost in the space. So I’m trying something on a smaller scale

One of the references in the catalogue reads ” Warrington - Stolen Duck and Nest of eggs from premises of Rev. Frank Hopweed, Bewsey Hall - Reward 2 guineas”. I found the document and based on the information (and artistic license) I’ve made a couple of quick collagraph prints 

 I scanned them, printed them out, and used the bits to assemble this as a trial. I think it’s going in the right direction