Danila Narcisi

Handmade cotton paper, pigment, lava stones and brass wires. Diameter 120cm.

Alpha as origin, of course, but also as creation, ground, earth.
This large artwork was originally part of a set including both black and white elements.
In this case I added a black pigment to the pulp in order to allow the paper to blend visually with fragments of lava stones.
The rounded shape is reminiscent of its title, and the spiral of brass wires and lava stones is a symbol for energy, development, evolution.
From a technical point of view, the challenge consisted in mixing the right type of paper with the right type of stone. The latter needed to be light, almost like pumice.

The Mander & Mitchenson Theatre Collection is one of the biggest English collections related to theatre.

Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, both actors, met in the late 1930’s and formed a professional and personal partnership that was to last for over forty years. In their house in Venner Road they amassed a vast collection of theatre ephemera, works of art, books and props.

Their collection (counting over 1500 archive boxes of theatre ephemera and 1500 books) is now in Greenwich, as part of the Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts (Trinity College of Music).

The boxes, containing over a million items of ephemera are still classified according the criteria originally used by Mander and Mitchenson. Each box is full of various materials, some more than one century old.

The collection counts many pictures, newspapers cut-outs, original documents and also a great deal of documentation regarding actors, regional theatres, circuses, puppetry and pantomime.

For more info visit the website: www.mander-and-mitchenson.co.uk

This chromolithograph, owned by the Mander and Mitchenson Collection, advertises the pantomime “The Babes in the Wood” that took place at the Aldwych Theatre in 1915. Within the same collection I managed to find, with the help of Kristy Davies, Archives Officer, a program of the play confirming the year of the production.

The poster, designed by Arnold Mello and printed by Alf Cooke Ltd, measure 739 mm in height and 500,6 mm in width.

When I had the poster to be conserved it was entirely glued on a hardboard sheet, thick 1,70 µm. The colours were in quite good condition although they were slightly darkened by surface dirt. The paper was brittle, showing many small missing areas and several tears along the edges.  Some of the tears spanned from the edge to the centre. The brighter area at the top was more fragile and showed abrasions, acidic discoloration and tidelines.