We visited the Société Jersiaise photo archives to learn more about the history of Elizabeth Castle, primarily the history with the Occupation and WWII. After this visit, I realised that I had no idea that the castle had so much history with so many different things – I’d always seen it more as just a monument for Queen Elizabeth I, not a place that housed exiled royalty or privateers.
We looked at several different physical copies of old photographs, letters, and drawings of or to do with the castle, and given a talk by photo-archivist Patrick Cahill on the importance of documentation and archiving – it gives people in the present mostly necessary information about the past that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise. We also learned about the process of archiving, how they sort everything in their systems, and how they decide what they can and can’t display for public access within the archives.
https://collections.societe.je/archive
We were also told about their online archive that is publicly available on the Société Jersiaise website, featuring 8 main sections of different media stored on their databases, including newspapers, annual bulletins, maps/plans, books, albums, photographs, talks and resources.
These resources will all be perfectly useful for the development and production of our short film on Elizabeth Castle, and will help me grasp a better idea of the history of the building and what it means to the island.
The exhibition ‘No Place Like Home’ showcases artists working in a variety of mediums from sculpture to tapestry to interactive installations where visitors can make themselves at home in a temporary living room. It challenges people’s perceptions of what an art exhibition can be and has been designed to appeal to a broad variety of ages, not just for those with a firmly established interest in art.
The exhibition itself was created by artists Rosalind Davis and Laura Hudson. They stated that they wanted to create and exhibition where everyone could feel at home, which is a part of the reason they chose to showcase their work in art house Jersey as it is accessible to a wider community. They explain that home, while its meaning depends on you as a person, is usually used to describe a sanctuary/ a safe space, which is something the artists tried to recreate with some of their pieces. Along side the artwork presented at the exhibition, there will also be installations in supposedly ‘surprising’ settings around the island.
We visited the Société Jersiaise, located at the Jersey Museum, to get information on how to access archive material online and through the archives.
Hautlieu students have been visiting the archives for many years for project material, and the school has a firm relationship with the Société. We were able to view some of the material on the history of Elizabeth Castle, including the original plans to build it.
We also visited Capital House to see an exhibition called No Place Like Home, which was a collection of work from multiple artists from both Jersey and the rest of the world on what they viewed as ‘Home’.
A floating sculpture of the Earth was situated in the Queen’s Valley Reservoir by artist Luke Jerram between 14th and 24th of September and this was a part of the exhibition.
The piece was intended to make the viewer feel the same sense of awe that astronauts feel when they view the Earth from space. A soundscape is played at the same time, drawing us to confront the issue of climate change and its effect on our planet.
One artist’s work, Harriet Mena Hill’s Aylesbury Estate fragments, was rather interesting to me. It was made up of fragments of debris from the Aylesbury Estate in South East London, which is being demolished as part of a renovation program. She wanted to focus on the impact of gentrification on communities, and decided to do this with the act of preservation of rendering scenes of her local architecture onto the fragments of concrete.
I felt that this trip was helpful as it helped me to understand how the archives work and how they can be used to add further depth to my projects. I also felt that the exhibition was rather interesting, and as it focuses on the idea of home and its importance to each individual, I think it is pretty relevant to our module on nostalgia.
No place like home takes as its starting point a subject of increasing concern and tension in the 21st century, affecting all aspects of society and identity. 23 acclaimed artists cast multiple threads of inquiry to consider the idea of home for this exhibition.
Founded in 1873, by only a small group of Islanders, the Société Jersiaise holds around 35,000 historical images. Although it started with a small number of people interested in the study of history, language and antiques of Jersey, it soon grew a larger membership and the historical documents were published. In 1893 the museum became permanent and moved to 9 Pier Road. Now looked after and owned by Jersey Heritage, the collection is still growing. Their main mission is to make the Islands history available for people to see and admire, researching its history.
We visited the Société Jersiaise and got introduced to the people that look after all the archives. We got to see archival history of Elizabeth Castle, which was really interesting. It also inspired me to possibly use images from the archive, as well as letters, in our film. By learning about Jersey’s past, and seeing physical prints of the castle, we got to understand its history more in depth than just visiting a website. Over the years, images have become digitalised and we have become acclimated to online and digital presentations of photos. Learning about this emphasised how today’s society has no appreciation of the history of image making. This gave me the opportunity to understand the importance of archives, and how much care goes into keeping them safe. I wasn’t aware of this before, and it has made me want to create a more historic film, and edit my images and videos to replicate archives.
Archived Images:
Postcard of a painting of Elizabeth Castle by Dominique Serres
Société Jersiaise is an archive of photos that contains the History, culture, environment and language of Jersey. There is about 35,000 historical images archived here, some of their photos and information goes back further than 1873, which was the year it was founded. There is an extensive library there where the archive publishes books about the photos for people to get, handy for any historians on the island who want to learn more about the history of Jersey.
Here are some photos of our recent visit:
History:
In 1992 the Photographic Archive (SJPA) was established to implement appropriate collections management policies for the photographic collections held by the Société Jersiaise Library. From its foundation, the Société actively encouraged the use of photography in achieving its aims, resulting in the natural accrual of photographic materials.
The collection acted as both a repository of research resources relating to Jersey, and as a record of the work carried out by the Société’s Sections and Departments. The SJPA is responsible for over 140,000 records and is Jersey’s primary repository for photographic materials; as described in the shared collections management policy between Jersey Heritage and the Société Jersiaise, which came into effect in 2019.
This is my final piece for my zine. I tried to combine my favourite black and white images combined with my images in colour. For each page I decided to keep the colour combinations so when you turn the page its like you get a different story due to the different characters and personalities.
‘No Place Like Home takes as its starting point a subject of increasing concern and tension in the 21st century, affecting all aspects of society and identity. Twenty-three acclaimed artists cast multiple threads of inquiry to consider the idea of Home for this exhibition.
When we think of home do we think of planet earth or something on a smaller scale; the shelter we find to sleep or the relationships that hold us together? Across the UK, homes are less affordable now than they have been at any time in housing history. The context for this show is the Channel Island of Jersey where rents and mortgages can reach an eye-watering 90% of income. We may all yearn for a home but this basic need is charged with political, social and economic realities; borders shift, relationships fracture, rules change, and forced migrations impact on the incredibly fragile thing that we call Home. Home can be a sanctuary or a place of danger, it might be stable or temporary, intimate or shared, rooted for generations or a refuge in times of need. Home might be a person, a community to which we belong or contested land that is no longer available to us, homes are full of histories, meanings and tensions; subject to external forces and internal dramas
No Place Like Home delves into personal stories, global issues, childhood memories, and speculative worlds as well as the bleak realities of the current housing market. Addressing raw and painful topics such as war, migration, violence, love and loss, these artists do not shy away from difficult issues, but rather tackle them with inventiveness, honesty and hope.
The exhibition features newly commissioned artworks by Rachel Ara (Jersey), Sasha Bowles (UK), Ana vorovié (Bosnia/UK), Justin Hibbs (UK), Daria Koltsova (Ukraine/UK), Will Romeril (Jersey), Lindsay Rutter (Jersey), and Lisa Traxler (Isle of Wight/UK) alongside existing artworks work by artists including: Jananne Al-Ani (Iraq/UK), Jackie Berridge (UK), George Bolster (Ire/USA), Peter Jones (UK), Peter Liversidge (UK), Harriet Mena Hill (UK), Kate Murdoch (UK), Ravelle Pillay (South Africa), Saba Qizilbash (Pakistan/UAE), Martha Rostler (USA), Judith Tucker (UK), Joanna Whittle (UK), Eddie Wong (Malaysia/NZ) and Andrea V Wright (UK).
No Place Like Home also extends beyond the gallery to include Luke Jerram’s Floating Earth, an ode to the precious planet we live on and the fragility of water sited at Queen’s Valley Reservoir.
Rachel Ara’s Dissent Module, an otherworldly happening that leaves its debris by the roadside and in our minds, and Lisa Traxler’s sculpture Ghost Echo, sited at the entrance to Jersey War Tunnels that draws upon occupation history, bunker structures and early warning radar systems.
Within the gallery Justin Hibbs’ For the Attention of the Homeowner takes the form of a living room in which visitors are invited to assume a temporary residence in a space curated by the artist and, as homeowners, visitors can open mail, play records, read books and curate their own ‘shelfies’.
No Place Like Home is curated by Rosalind Davis and Laura Hudson and presented by Arthouse Jersey.’
– Art House Jersey
Harriet Mena Hill, UK Aylesbury
Estate Fragments
Acrylic on salvaged demolition concrete, 2020
Since 2018 Hills’ work has been focused on the Aylesbury Estate in South East London investigating how community identity is affected and reframed by the process of redevelopment and gentrification.
The Aylesbury Fragments are an extraordinary act of preservation, rendering scenes of her local architecture directly onto pieces of salvaged material from the Aylesbury Estate, which is being demolished as part of a regeneration program.
The Aylesbury Estate was designed by the architect Hans Peter Trenton and was considered exemplary social housing designed to meet the needs of the people who lived there. The building’s construction began in 1963 and housed approximately 10,000 people. It is now in the final phase of being demolished in order to make way for redevelopment and Hill has spent several years documenting this place as it disappears piece by piece, and at each stage of degradation; as tenants are moved out and those in desperate need are temporarily housed. The concrete is imbued with the contentious history of the site, what remains are fragments of people’s lives.
Martha Rosler, USA – Semiotics of the Kitchen
Video, Performance, RT 6. 15 minutes, 1975
In this performance based work, a static camera is focused on a woman in a kitchen. Rosier adopts the form of a parodic cooking demonstration in which, as Rosier states, “An anti Julia Child replaces the domesticated meaning of tools with a lexicon of rage and frustration.” Made in 1975 this piece is still relevant today, more so perhaps after the experience of lockdown and the burden of domestic work falling mainly to women. We have made major improvements to equality in, law, education, and the workplace but not so much in the Horne.
Ravelle Pillay, SA – Empty Rooms
Two colour lithograph on paper, 30 x 43.5cm, 2023
South African painter Ravelle Pillay uses lithography to document ancestral homes on both sides of her family that are imbued with histories of colonialism and the complex individual stories that shape them.
Empty rooms is a study of two buildings, superimposed on alien landscapes. The sites are related to Pillay’s own history, the first being of her family home built by her maternal great-grandfather in Durban, South Africa informally referred to as ‘the castle’, which was repossessed by the Apartheid government, and which now stands derelict. The second site is the ancestral home of her great-great-grandfather, Lilford Hall in Northamptonshire, England.
Each site, irrespective of their geographical distance, features heavily in the mythologised family histories Pillay grew up listening to.
Rachel Ara, Jersey – Seeking Comfort in an Uncomfortable Housing Market
Digital print on paper, 107×62cm, 2022
In 2021 the artist returned home to Jersey after 3 decades in London, primarily to keep an eye on her parents. Whilst looking for a home and studio, Ara was shocked by the unaffordable rents and chronic housing crisis forcing Jersey workers into cramped and difficult living conditions. This “performance” was her response. With no access to a studio and her tools in storage, Ara made this work with materials to hand; a large cardboard box, some household paint, gaffer tape and a smartphone to record her struggles fitting into a makeshift house unsuitably small for her body.
The format references Bruno Munari’s 1944 classic poster, “Seeking Comfort in an uncomfortable chair” which was a humorous provocation to the design establishment. 80 years later Aras’ work is a provocation to the state of the housing market.
Munari’s title is in both Italian and English, as Aras’ is in English and Portuguese, the second most widely spoken language in Jersey by a community who are disproportionately affected by substandard accommodation.
Governors of Jersey moved their official residence from Mont Orgueil to Elizabeth Castle, which was first used in a military context during the English Civil War in the 17th century. and was built to defend jersey against French invasions and has witnessed many significant events over the centuries. some of the wars that it was used in consist of The English Civil war, the Napoleonic Wars and world war 2.
it took around 70 years to complete the construction of the castle. It was also built in stages, with different sections being added over time. The construction began in the 16th century and continued in stages until the 17th century.
Built on a rocky islet in St. Aubin’s Bay, Elizabeth Castle has defended Jersey for more than 400 years. You can take the amphibious castle ferry or walk out along the causeway at low tide. Elizabeth Castle is the perfect place to spend a day exploring Jersey’s history with the Jersey Militia or castle gunner on parade.
Below is an old map of the castle
The main weapons that they used for defence consist of cannons, muskets and other firearms that where commonly used during that period.
below is some more information that i found on this website
The islet
Elizabeth Castle, as its name suggests, dates from the days of the great Tudor Queen. But its site had long previously been associated with events of local importance, the earliest of which might well be termed legendary rather than historical.
Here, about the year 540 AD, came Helier, the Christian anchorite after whom our town is named. He chose as his habitation a lonely spume-sprayed rock south east of the islet, where his reputed bed, a rough niche in the rock, may still be seen. In the same place, some 15 years later, he was discovered by a band of marauding sea-rovers and put to the sword, thus earning a place in the Calendar as Jersey’s first Christian martyr and patron saint.
The Hermitage, or oratory, which encloses his cell was erected at a much later date, probably in the 12th century.
St Marculf
St Helier was a pupil of St Marculf, to whom is chiefly attributed the conversion of the islanders to Christianity. As the population of Jersey then numbered, we are told, only 30 families, the task was not quite so formidable as it sounds. But the benefits conferred by these pioneers of Christianity were material as well as spiritual. The monasteries which they founded invariably attracted settlers to the district, agriculture and the rudiments of education were taught, and an impetus given to civilisation generally. Shortly after the death of St Helier, St Marculf established a monastic settlement upon the islet, and the agglomeration of peasants’ huts which, as a consequence, sprang up in the near vicinity, formed the foundations of the future town of St Helier. After the death of Marcuif in 558, his work was carried on by St Magloire or Mannelier. In 577 Pretextat, Archbishop of Rouen, as the result of a quarrel with the Frankish King, fled to Jersey and took refuge in the Monastery of the islet. He was the first of the host of political exiles who, throughout history, have found shelter and security on our shores. Jersey’s inclusion in the Empire of Charlemagne is disclosed by the records of the Abbey of Fontenelle, which state that the Emperor sent Abbot Gerwold on a diplomatic mission to Augia, as it was then termed, in 790.Towards the end of the ninth century, Norse raiders again descended on the Islet and St Marculf’s Monastery was laid in ruins.
