Capturing the Brontës
Wednesday, 4th September 2013
Brontë Parsonage unveils exciting new exhibition with surrealist photographer Charlotte Cory - 4 October to 31 December 2013
Witty alternative “museum within museum” examines unusual facts and mysteries surrounding the Brontë family.
What is a stuffed giraffe doing in the hallway of the Brontë Parsonage Museum? If you thought there was not much new that could be said about the Brontës, think again. - Capturing the Brontës is a fantastical, yet highly informative exploration of the Brontë story in terms of Darwin and early photography. This exhibition by one of the country’s leading surrealist photographers cheekily creates an alternative ‘Visitorian’ museum within the Brontë Parsonage Museum and is presented as part of their Contemporary Arts Programme. Brimming with the charm, wit (and cheek) of its creator, Charlotte Cory, Capturing the Brontës re-examines many of the more unusual facts and mysteries surrounding the Brontë family. We see the sharp beaked biographer, Mrs Gaskell, as a cockatoo. The cult of Keeper (Emily Brontë’s enormous faithful dog) is resurrected as Yorkshire’s answer to Grayfriar’s Bobby. Even the servant Tabby’s parkin recipe takes literary London by storm …
Charlotte Cory is best known for her ‘Visitoriana’ – an alternative 19th Century universe in which animals dominate the Earth. Her work is in the Royal Collection at Windsor (the Queen owns a corgi queen) and has been shown at the Royal Academy. Her complex photographic collages are fashioned from Victorian calling cards (cartes-de-visite) and her own portraits of stuffed animals. By giving new life and meaning to the recycled images, she manages to create a bold new narrative. Cory’s Capturing the Brontës sees Branwell Brontë studying at the Royal Academy, and treasures that never arrived at the Brontë Parsonage – like their mother Maria Branwell’s shipwrecked trunk – are now on display. The surprising presence of a giraffe in the hall, is explained with wit that neatly contrasts with the melancholic reference to Charlotte Brontë’s connection with her publisher George Smith – an exhibition to both relish and on which to reflect.
Cory’s work can be seen at three locations, taking place almost simultaneously at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth and at The Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate, before travelling down to London in February. As three distinct exhibitions, each location allows a different focus and adds new substance to the family’s story. This is the Brontës as they have never been seen before…
Charlotte Cory says all of the locations are of importance to the Brontë family: “Haworth was home. Harrogate is nearby. It was also the place where you went to take the foul-smelling healthy waters...London, meanwhile, always represented somewhere enticing and alluringly unattainable to the Brontë family.”
Capturing the Brontës is Cory’s endeavour to encapsulate something of the animal spirit of the Brontës and includes a superb schedule of events for visitors to the Museum throughout the exhibition. A fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be available. Open to view at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, 4 October – 31 December 2013.
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