Sunday 24 June 2018

Workhouse burial pits


6 comments:

  1. I'm assuming this is of your creation. Are you getting into abstract art to put on display?

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    1. Yes, I've always been interested one way or another. But this is from a series I'm doing on the 19th and 20th century Workhouse burial pits. I tried to do them in photographic images but they didn't render.

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  2. This is interesting. I don't always "understand" abstract art, but that doesn't prevent me from enjoying what I see.

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    1. All art is abstract to some extent. But it's only recently the idea that I have eyes therefore I should get it instantly notion came about. You don't expect to fully understand a poem the first time reading. You don't expect not to work for an understanding. I think seeing something for the first time. I ask is it bringing energy to a room/space.

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  3. Now that you’ve enticed us a bit, it would be interesting to know more about Workhouse burial pits.

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    1. Nothing but pure luck kept people out of the workhouse. It made little if any difference how hardworking you were. In a society where manpower really meant just that, and where men were cheaper to replace than a horse any slip in income and you'd end up inside the workhouse, along with your family.
      Then you have a craftsman. Say a carpenter. They would have a bit more leeway. But very quickly indeed any surplus would be stripped out.
      And then you had the farmers. Leases were for three lives, not the more usual in the UK for 99 years. But three lives could and often did pass rapidly indeed.
      Think of it this way. If the answer was the slums of New York those pits were the question.

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