To coincide with Hogarth, Tate Britain commissioned artist Gayle Chong Kwan to work in partnership with the Foundling Museum, Coram Family and Sure Start South Westminster in order to create a piece in response to some of the themes Hogarth had explored.
Conversations examines the relationship between mother and child, often in adverse social circumstances. This short film by Gayle Chong Kwan is the result of a collaboration between the artist and current users of Coram Family’s Young Parents Project and with Lydia Carmichael, who grew up in the Foundling Hospital. It involves them all in a process of discovery, memory and reflection. Together they create an often painful journey of personal experience, while reflecting on Hogarth’s works, and on objects in the Foundling and Sir John Soane Museums. Conversations demonstrates how many of Hogarth’s social concerns are still an issue today and, like Hogarth, explores them through the medium of art.
Most of those involved in Conversations are mothers.They discuss their difficulties and the support they have received from Coram Family and other agencies. In contrast, Lydia Carmichael describes her rule-bound upbringing in the Foundling Hospital and reflects on her own and her mother’s lives. Lydia was two months old when her mother, Flora Newton, the first female film editor at the Associated British Picture Corporation, took her to the Foundling Hospital. During the making of Conversations, Lydia was able to see for the first time Glamorous Night (1937), one of the many films her mother had edited.
The Foundling Hospital was established in 1739 by Sir Thomas Coram with the support of Hogarth and composer George Frideric Handel. For over two hundred years the Hospital responded to the high numbers of babies and children abandoned because their parents, usually mothers, were unable to care for them. It finally closed in 1953, but its work is continued by Coram Family and its history is preserved in the Foundling Museum.
Today Coram Family works to bring about significant improvements in the emotional wellbeing and prospects of disadvantaged children and young people. Its emphasis is on working jointly with parents and children to find solutions within the family unit, rather than placing children in the care of others or of the state. Tate Britain runs many programmes with children and adults and, for this project, its Young Tate and Sure Start programmes collaborated with Coram Family’s Young Parents Project and with Sure Start South Westminster Children’s Centre.
Duration: 15 minutes
Location: Manton Foyer Screen display Information, Tate Britain, 10.00–17.45
On the following dates the film will also be displayed in the Lightbox:
Saturday 24 February 2007, 10.00–13.30
Friday 2 March 2007, 10.00–22.00
Monday 5 March 2007, 10.00–17.50
Friday 9 March 2007, 10.00–21.00
Friday 16 March 2007, 10.00–17.50
Wednesday 28 March 2007, 10.00–17.50
Thursday 29 March 2007, 18.30–20.30
Saturday 31 March 2007, 10.00–17.50
Friday 6 April 2007, 18.00–22.00
Thursday 26 April 2007, 10.00–17.50
The sound quality of this work is integral to its conversational style.
