Prescot Museum collection inspires new artwork by Owl Project

Owl Project at Prescot Museum

Prescot Museum is commissioning collaborative artists Owl Project  to create work inspired by collection as part of Meeting Point2 project.

Prescot Museum has been selected as one of ten museums in the North of England to be part of the Meeting Point2 project. Funded through Arts Council England’s Resilience Fund, it aims to equip museums with arts commissioning knowledge and skills, as well as presenting new works in unexpected places. Artists will be working in partnership with each of the ten venues, creating new art in response to their collections. The programme builds on a successful pilot which took place in 2016.

Owl Project is a collaborative group of artists consisting of Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. They work with wood and electronics, fusing sculpture and sound art, creating music-making machines, interfaces and objects combining pre-steam and digital technologies.

Antony explains, “the history of industrial changes in the town of Prescot and its involvement in the creation of time and mechanical movement resonates strongly with our practice. During the coming months we will be working with ceramics, water, glass and sand to develop a musical and sculptural exploration of timekeeping devices through the ages. We are looking forward to working together with local craftspeople to recreate a number of key experiments from the historical development of horology.”

 Owl Project have been visiting Prescot Museum’s store to look at mechanical items behind the scenes, recording the sounds the mechanisms make using lasers, and filming them in motion for their research as they work towards the final piece. Listen to a clip of sounds they recorded using a laser microphone

Timandra Nichols, Director, Arts&Heritage, which initiated and is leading the project, said “the resulting works, when they are revealed later in the year, will not only be astounding pieces in their own right, but will also prompt audiences to think about the museums where the works will be sited in a very different way.”

To find out more about Owl Project, visit their website

Owl Project at Prescot Museum  Photo by Owl Project