Sound artist Sarah Farmer has spent a number of months working and researching intensively at the Lapworth Museum of Geology  and the Winterbourne botanical collection. Farmer has explored the collections, spent time with the curators and staff, and has created a number of sound based works, as well as screenprints, in response to her time there.

The exhibition is now at Lapworth Museum of Geology from Thursday 7th November until Sunday 24th November. Come and explore the university’s collections in a way you would never imagine.

Lapworth Museum / 9.00am – 5.00pm weekdays 12.00pm – 5.00pm weekends / University of Birmingham, Aston Webb building, Edgbaston Campus

This project is supported through Connected – a University of Birmingham Cultural Engagement initiative.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/culture

Sarah Farmer’s residency at University of Birmingham focuses on the collections at Laptworth Museum and Winterbourne Gardens, and she’s making some exciting progress. Here Sarah tells us a bit about her process.

Sarah made this vacuum print bed…

“DIY has been the name of the game this month. I have been making my own vacuum print bed for screen printing record sleeves and posters, and a UV lightbox in order to make silk screens and photoetchings using imagery taken at the university’s collections. They won’t win any awards for design – they are made almost entirely from reclaimed materials, but they do work.

…and a UV lightbox

Along with making my tools, I have been starting to make my own collection of artefacts – copies of fossils, etchings, using the printing press and i even have my own slice of cactus awaiting further artistic treatment. At this stage, everything is in a developmental stage as I turn raw photos into physical objects through sculptural and printing process, which will ultimately result in the making of sound sculptures.”

Skeleton etching – these etchings will be used to make a sound piece

Casts of fossils