Formerly a primary school teacher and later a Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture and director of M.A’s in the Arts and Education and Visual Culture and Fine Art, Bryan was inspired by his art teacher Harvey Sklair at Beckenham and Penge Grammar School and subsequently studied at Chelsea School of Art, Canterbury Christ Church University, Sussex University and Camberwell School of Art. He is published in relation to Children’s Drawings, Art Education and Film and Animation. He has presented academic papers, exhibited and curated widely and has recently curated and produced creative work for exhibitions linking Art and Archaeology. Currently he is a full-time artist and Canterbury Archaeological Trust Artist in Residence.
Presentation: The Ghosts of Other Things – Art Archaeology and Archive as Lived Human Stories
The paper will focus on Canterbury Archaeological Trusts Rochester Airport Dig 2021/22 and the linked exhibition The Ghosts of Other Things which ran from 28 October 2022 until 14 January 2023.
The dig discovered no conventional ‘treasure’. However the revelation of 6,000 years of human habitation, connection and creativity provided ‘treasure’ as a sense of a deep humanity that became the focus of the exhibition. This treasure as artefacts, archive, art and evidence and as emergent stories was enhanced, added to and extended by visitors to the exhibition. The title of the exhibition was taken from The Mystery of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel of mystery and detection set in the ancient city of Cloisterham (Dickens re-invention of Rochester). Dickens’ novel and its focus on the past, on evidence and on mystery links to the ongoing processes by which archaeology generates meaning and also to things more intangible.
Dickens suggests through two of his central characters:
“But do you think there may be ghosts of other things though not of men and women?”
“What things? Flowerbeds and watering pots? Horses and harness?”
“No. sounds”
“What sounds? “
“Cries”
The paper will reflect on the human cries, content, curation, outcomes, resonances, discoveries and emergent trajectories of the exhibition.
Roundtable: Creative Heritage
Other panelists include Helen Worthy, Jeremy Clarke, Catherine Richardson and Miriam Cooper.