Magee, J., Dixon, S., 2015.

Resonance: Reflections on the Great War through artwork inspired by Staffordshire collections.

Resonance has been developed in collaboration with the Staffordshire Great War museum consortium, as an artistic response to their collections of First World War artefacts, documents and archives. The exhibition features new ceramic installations by Stephen Dixon, with photography and film by Johnny Magee. Collectively, the works look at the ways in which the Great War affected the Staffordshire home front, examining themes of absence, loss, individual heroism and shared humanity, and considers how these themes resonate within the material objects found in the collections. Stephen Dixon has responded to the many examples of Crested China, a popular form of Staffordshire souvenir-ware, which was at the height of its popularity during the Great War, and has extended its repertoire in new and provocative ways. Johnny Magee has focussed on postcards and documentary photographs of the period, re-interpreting and re-imagining these images in film and photography. The exhibition is touring to seven Staffordshire museums, from March 2015 to March 2016, with a rolling programme of new works, which will respond differently to each venue, changing and evolving as the tour progresses.