See/ Morling and the Hoard/ Permanent collection
Stoke-on-Trent
General Information
As part of the London 2012 Festival Katharine Morling has been commissioned by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to create a body of work that references the incredible significance of the world famous Staffordshire Hoard. The commission, known as Morling and the Hoard, will be installed permanently and proudly at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent and was funded by Arts Council England as part of the Cultural Olympiad programme.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest and most impressive hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found. It consists of more than 1,500 beautifully crafted items. The artifacts have been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Kingdom of Mercia.
Experts have theorised about the purpose of the deposit, and whether those who made it were Christians or Pagans. The quality of the workmanship is extremely high and this is remarkable in view of the large number of individual objects which make up the hoard.
Drawing inspiration from the animals that decorated the armour of the Hoard, Morling designed 10 large scale ceramic sculptures of mythological godlike creatures, that represent the deities that the Anglo Saxons might have worshiped.
The ten sculptures in Morling’s signature black and white aesthetic include a four headed falcon, an armoured bird, Byron the doar and a dragon with rider.
As well as creating the installation Morling also commissioned a stop motion video of the work in progress. Cameras were put in the studio throughout the four months capturing the making process.
An animation was also commissioned to show which pieces of the Hoard inspired each sculpture and depict the story of the animal gods how they rise from the Hoard and transform into mythological gods..
Morling says “I was particularly drawn to the depictions of the animals that decorated the Hoard, what did they symbolise to the people who worn them on their armor? Perhaps the Anglo-Saxon’s thought that they were taking on the energy of these wild creatures, giving them greater strength and power in their battles.
So I took the tiny images from the Hoard and transformed them into the mythological god figures, brought to life in a kingdom of animals gods. Who represent the power that the original decorations on the armor symbolized; protecting their charges in battle and bestowing power and energy.
I wanted this project to re-imagine the story of the hoard, from Terry Herbert who discovered it two years ago, finding shiny jewels depicting strange creatures from the surface of the earth, to the creatures themselves being unleashed from the ground from where they have been entombed for millennium, coming back to life on screen, through the modern medium of animation.”
