‘Private View’ exhibition, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle 1996
Curated by Penelope Curtis and Veit Gorner
‘Seeing and using the objects of various cultures has always fascinated me, especially experiencing them in situ: in a private collection, domestic setting, a roadside, in market places: using a palm leaf as a plate (Timbuktu, Mali) or a piece of newsprint as a container for fish and chips (England), having my photo taken by a photographer who used a wall papered box as a camera with a bottle-lid as a lens cap (Santa Cruz, Bolivia), being shown an extraordinary collection of miniature tea sets and pitchers which almost lined an entire living-room (Essex, England), being warming by a Renaissance stufa or picking up a Greek vase to find it practically weightless (Trento, Italy). Experiencing objects first hand is different from appreciating them in museums.’
Cecile Johnson Soliz