BCM Storytelling Chair by Al Johnson
About the Creation
For the Haringey Feast, Al co-created one storytelling chair - 'Bubble and Squeak' - with attendees at Bruce Castle's Reminiscence Cafe and another - 'The High Road' - was inspired by her own artistic practice.
The High Road storytelling chair saw Al fascinated by the changing names of shops in Tottenham High Road, and the slogans they used such as ‘Davis, Doorway to a Man’s World’! She decided to text embroider the names of shops and pubs onto the same rich blue cloth used for the Bubble and Squeak community-made chair.
The chair design for ‘Bubble and Squeak’ developed from a group of elders in Tottenham reminiscing about the types of food that had appeared and disappeared over their lifetimes. They discussed foods from broken biscuits to sides of ham, and Tottenham Cake, with its pink icing coloured by Mulberries. They talked about changing shopping habits - from queuing at marble counters to buy butter, to supermarket shopping, and the appearance of new foods, garlic, sweet potatoes and avocadoes! They then drew the foods onto cloth circles, like plates of food. They used fabric pastels, and they were later stitched onto a bright blue drill cloth which covered the chair.
About the Artist
Al Johnson is a politically engaged sculptor and her work considers recent history and the interplay between politics, power and the collective memory.
About the Community
Al Johnson attended two Reminiscence sessions at Bruce Castle - one to collect stories about Tottenham High Road, and the other to share stories and draw colourful pictures relating to Tottenham's food history. Quotes from the sessions include: 'I saw a mini skirt in a shop, and Dad said that’s not a skirt it’s a pelmet’ and ‘Do you remember buying two tone tonic mohair trousers?' Also discussed at the session were stories of collecting food waste and turning it into pig food -Tottenham Pudding!
Bruce Castle Museum & Archive runs monthly free Reminiscence Cafes where participants can come to the Museum and share memories and stories over a cup of tea.
