The Five Sisters Mosaic

In a joint statement the artists, Emma Biggs and Matthew Collings, said: “This installation is a way of looking at history. It is impossible for any work of art to express an idea free from a visual tradition, free from the ideology of the past, and the labour of others. Artists are never the sole creators of their work, and Five Sisters asks you to look at the work of the hands that threw the pots, adhered the handles, applied the glaze and stacked the kiln.

"But you are also seeing the work of the archaeologists who unearthed these ceramic fragments, volunteers who cleaned them, the Trust that housed them and the taxpayers who funded their preservation. This work is an accumulation of labour, values, aesthetics, skills and knowledge from the past, remade and re-examined.”


The thousands of pieces of broken pot have come from archaeological digs in Yorkshire and are cared for by the York Museums Trust. They are roughly the same age at the Five Sisters window in the Minster. A team of volunteers from the city have cleaned the varied pieces that will make up the intricate and abstract mosaic.

Five Sisters is the fifth installation to be commissioned at York St Mary’s, a deconsecrated medieval church in the heart of York. The installations are created to complement the unique space and draw on its atmospheric surroundings.

York St Mary’s is open 10am–4pm and free to all.

For more information on the church, Five Sisters and past installations go to: www.yorkstmarys.org.uk

The Five Sisters window in York Minster, inspiration for the new mosaic.
From www.britainexpress.com

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