Findings: Sue Tuckett

Objects persist and can be imbued with narrative and new meanings. The pieces, in this exhibition Findings by Sue Tuckett, reference containers and holding places for small moveable objects. The ditty bag or housewife, for instance, was a bag with sections for holding odds and ends, including a small sewing kit for sailors. Captain Scott’s personal ditty bag survives in the museum at the Polar Institute in Cambridge. In his diaries he describes the crew’s sewing skills; one of several poignant reminders of the expedition. Other such containers referred to in this exhibition include pockets tied around the waist by women in the seventeenth century as a safe place for small possessions and the collection of objects from the land. Sue Tuckett’s working method is slow and accumulative with several pieces being worked on at the same time as they gradually evolve into groups or associated items. Their portability means they can be handled, in and out of the studio, allowing for reflection after close detailed involvement. Initial ideas are drawn in sketchbooks and developed as larger collages, pieces are revisited and reviewed over weeks, sometimes months. The stitching involved is slow to do and to unpick, thus it becomes an intensely meditative process. Sue Tuckett was the Principal and Chief Executive of Norwich School of Art and Design from 2001 to 2008. She has exhibited widely in both national and international exhibitions and lives and works in Norwich.