22 June 2009
Their Finest Hours
Imperial War Museum Duxford is to host a new exhibition of photography
and poems by the Talking Pictures Group of disabled artists.
Entitled Their Finest Hours, the exhibition depicts sites that once had some military
significance and shows how the places depicted, now mostly in some state of decay,
once made a tremendous contribution to the war effort. Those times when these sites
were most valuable to the nation were indeed Their Finest Hours.
Sites depicted include the disused control tower at the former RAF station at Wheaton
Aston, a concrete Acetone Vat at a former Royal Navy Cordite factory and a pill box at
Market Drayton on the Shropshire Union Canal.
The poignant and sensitive manner in which these places have been portrayed in
photographs, poetry and prose, gives visitors the opportunity to better understand
Britain’s military heritage.
Some of the places depicted have been adapted for other uses, whilst others are in a
state of decay and could be lost altogether. The way in which nature quickly reclaims
that for which mankind has no further need is well illustrated in this exhibition. It
reflects the frailty of man, which is well understood by the exhibiting artists, because of
their own disabilities.
Clifford Morris has been a photographer for forty-five years. He is a Fellow of the
Royal Photographic Society and a holder of their prestigious Fenton Medal, which he
was awarded in 1981. He has exhibited widely throughout the country and has raised
considerable funds for a lift for people with disabilities at the National Centre of
Photography and also for the Disabled Photographers Society, an organisation that
helps to adapt cameras and equipment for enthusiasts with disabilities, including those
who might have lost limbs or are partially sighted.
Clifford said ‘The exhibition was four years in the making and we see the rewards in
being able to display the work in such an acclaimed national museum. It gives us a
unique opportunity to bring disability arts to a new and much wider public given the
numbers that will pass through the gallery. We hope very much that visitors will
appreciate the unusual approach to our military heritage that we have employed in
creating the exhibition’.
Clifford combines his photographs with poems by Semba Jallow-Rutherford. Semba
has published two books of poetry and has given readings both at home and abroad.
Their Finest Hours will be on display in Land Warfare Hall until winter 2009. Entry to
the exhibition is included in standard admission to Imperial War Museum Duxford.
For more information go to: http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/
Photo credit: Christian Pratt. |
