An agreeable space

About

Combining 143 adorned pew cushions scented with lavender, and in excess of 100 lite pale blue candles, ‘An agreeable space’ offers a heightened sensory experience in which to consider the lives of all the women who have passed through the very agreeable space that is the Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate.

About the piece by Lorna Johnson: 

“The church is mainly made up of stall pews, which would have housed each family attending church separately. In the simple act of taking up space, this piece looks to marking an equal amount of women to that of men that would have also sat in these benches.  Holy Trinity Church Goodramgate, I feel offers a unique even playing field for remembrance in that there are no available records for any of the past families who filled the church’s pew boxes. So an equal hypothetical split of the space to represent the centuries long female presence is the ideal, they were there.

Within each of the ruffle adorned pew cushions is a bag of loose lavender, so when sat on more lavender scent will be released.  I want to give the feeling of someone that might be right behind you or having just left and using a scent that has been universally used and worn by women for centuries felt right.  

I like that over time the cushions might get worn and dirty, much the same as a Sunday dress. The hand sewn adornments use a variety of fabrics representing a cross section of society. These fabrics have been used together to represent this coming together and speaks of the interdependency of these women with one another in society and the possible changing fortunes of these women throughout there and their descendant’s lifetimes. Set against the muted colours of the cushions, the pale blue colour pays homage to the female spirit that has graced this space.

Ultimately this place – Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, allowed all the women within these walls to sit still, rest the fabric that would have weighed upon them, to take in the space and what it offered them.”