Lyndall Phelps

Archival Scenarios 2010

A temporary installation at Barrington Court, Somerset

During summer 2010 I undertook a residency at Barrington Court, a Tudor manor house, which was purchased by the National Trust in 1907. During the 1920s it was leased to Colonel Arthur Lyle (from the Tate and Lyle dynasty), who restored the Court, using it as a ‘stage’ for his extensive collection of historic timber paneling. Lyle was a meticulous man, who worked closely with his laborers to install the paneling. Detailed accounts of the panel’s history and installation would have been kept, however these vanished during the 1940s. I created a new panel archive for the Long Gallery, firstly by counting the number of individual panels, of which there are 2349, and secondly measuring each one.

Archival Scenarios records and catalogues this data, using museology and forensic practices. The installation has three components: evidence markers, which indicate various sections within the Long Gallery; eight glass specimen jars filled with Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup, which signify the number of panels in each section and data sheets, which record the different panel sizes in each section and the number of each.

Archival Scenarios was part of Scion, a Trust New Art project, commissioned by Beacon Art Project in partnership with the National Trust. For further information please visit here.