Artistic explorations
30 September 2009
A travel award has funded an LJMU student on an expedition to European cemetaries.
Stella Halliwell, a final year student on the History of Art and Museum Studies program, will see her article on George du Maurier’s Punch cartoons published in the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s next issue of their Review journal. Stella began researching the cartoons, which parody the Pre-Raphaelite mindset, for a course assignment and found some interesting paradoxes.
Praising her course's approach, Stella commented: “In truth had it not been for my course and the confidence it has given me I perhaps wouldn’t have achieved this. The structure of the course encourages exploration of personal interests within assignments, rather than taking a prescriptive approach.”
“It has furnished me with so many great opportunities. Along with lectures, modules such as Internship provide valuable hands-on professional experience within the art gallery and museum sector.”
During the summer break Stella submitted a proposal for the Susan Cotton Travel Award, which provides financial support for travel relating to research into a particular topic that will benefit the applicant’s personal development and academic achievements.
Stella said: “I applied for the European award so that I could explore the flowering of the cemetery aesthetic in both the UK and France, as it evolved from the garden paradigm to the familiar high Victorian cemetery aesthetic. I also wanted to contextualise the growth of cemeteries with the Victorian ‘cult of death’ by exploring the paraphernalia associated with death and mourning and the social rituals that evolved.”
Following her successful application for the Award, Stella has been fortunate enough to visit cemeteries in London, Oxford, Bristol and Bradford – as well as a number of museums with collections directly relating to Victorian mourning.
“What has been great about the award is that it has allowed me to explore an area of aesthetics that has long fascinated me. We have in our cemeteries beautiful sculpture, the esoteric language of universal and private symbolism and landscape design to parallel many country estates and gardens.”
“I am quite excited about my forthcoming visit to Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. I will be interpreting the ‘feel’ of the cemetery through photography, collage and prose. I am by no means artistically gifted, but having taken a practical module on collage last year on my course I feel more confident to try something different.”
Inspired by her findings, Stella commented: “Doing this course has helped focus my research interests. I hope next year to do a Masters in Victorian Studies and then hopefully a PhD.”
You can follow Stella’s explorations over at her blog: www.stellahalliwell.co.uk
