Lives, loves and loss: Traces at National Trust's Fenton House

About

In December 2016, Traces will be holding an immersive art and design showcase at the National Trust’s Fenton House in Hampstead. Staying true to archival research into the history of the building, Traces will reimagine the house as it may have been in the early 1700s when the Gee family lived there. Discover the lives, loves and loss of these former inhabitants, as you wander through the rooms and unpick their secrets. See ctional narratives interwoven with factual discoveries as you explore spaces brought to life by artists, designers and makers. Unearth a wealth of specially commissioned objects around the property, all available to purchase just in time for Christmas. A combination of history, storytelling and artistry.

Up to 70 established and emerging artists and designers have been invited to make new work especially for the event. Traces has also supported 14 brand new commissions which will be unveiled at the launch. So far we are delighted to welcome Camilla Meijer, Haidee Drew, Beth Lewis Williams, Zoe Hillyar and many, many more to make work for the event. Traces wants to give emerging artists and designers a platform to present themselves to the public and the industry. So many of the large design shows charge premiums for exhibitors to be involved, which means that a lot of great work goes unseen and everyone loses out. Traces is a not for pro t organisation and charges only 30% commission on work sold which goes back to the project for the next event.

Fenton’s history is fascinating...Traces wants to bring alive forgotten stories unearthed from the archives. The time is 1730 and the Gee family are economically and socially in the ascendancy. But two deaths in the past 24 months have brought realisation that their world may not be all it seems. Delve into a multi-sensory experience and explore the origins of the new world, booming world trade, how the Quakers were a force for change, and the intricate lives of the newly established middle classes in Georgian London. 

About Traces

Traces is a community of curators and makers with a reputation for staging some of London’s most imaginative art and design installations in old and historic buildings around the city. With a process rooted in archival research, Traces isolates a particularly eventful phase in the building’s history and commissions artists to recreate the objects, stories and people which inhabited it then. The result is a multi-sensory experience in which visitors can trace narratives of the building’s past in sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes created by some of London’s leading designers.