dawn cole, resting place                                              from 28 september 2013 - 2015

across kent, london and france                               duration: 10 events over 28 months   

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beginning in ramsgate, kent in september 2013, platform-7 will begin facilitating a series of one-off beautiful live performance events with award winning print artist, dawn cole, following the dairy of her great aunt clarice, a first world war nurse. 

 

winner of the v&a prize at the international print biennale 2011 and shortlisted for 2013 arts foundation award, dawn cole has been developing her ‘resting place’ project since the beginning of 2012. 

 

discovering her great aunt clarice’s diary in her parents attic, dawn was fascinated to discover that her great aunt took a fit of fancy and headed to france in 1915 to become an voluntary aid detachment (vad) nurse during the first world war.   starting out as an exciting journey, the diary quickly becomes a log of the horrors being inflicted during this period of european history.

 

using pillowcases as a representation of the suffering of clarice’s charges, this live event project draws in the viewer to consider aspects of the war that is more often left untold; from the viewpoint of a young woman on the frontline.     with funding from arts council england and kent county council, a series of live performances of contemporary dance and poetry will accompany the laying of the pillowcases in public spaces.  the imagery will mirror the war graves of the wimereux cemetery in france, near to where clarice worked, and many of those she nursed are buried. 

 

​platform-7 will be facilitating, in conjunction with dawn cole, 8 outdoor one-off performances over a two year period following clarice’s diary from kent to london, on to france and back, ending with a museum exhibition in 2015.  



[dawn cole's blog] [first resting place in no man's land] [V&A essay]