Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Visitors to Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire will be greeted by a spectacular ‘House of Bling’ this summer when the Grade I listed monument is transformed into a site for contemporary art. From 8 – 23 August, the 15th century castle, owned by the National Trust, will be the focus of innovative contemporary art works and installations by six internationally renowned artists.

The artists, Sarah Price, Geraldine Pilgrim, Catherine Bertola, Linda Florence, and KMA (Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler) have been commissioned to produce site-specific works inspired by the building, its people and extraordinary history.
Working throughout the five-storey castle and its grounds, rooms will be transformed, lawns re designed, and itinerant gardens grown amongst the ruins. These spaces and the stories surrounding them, lend themselves to a re-telling or re-imagining of what might have been and a unique opportunity for artists to present fragments of history and bring the building back to life.
The commissioned artists have been actively encouraged to play with historical narratives, blur fact and fiction and add another layer to what is already known.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie is an installation for the private chamber on the third floor inspired by a story of abandonment and eventual restoration. During research for the project, Geraldine discovered old photographs of wooden packing cases containing fireplaces missing from Tattershall Castle which were found at Tilbury Docks in 1912. The fireplaces, symbols of the castle’s romantic past, were returned to Tattershall on decorated wagons in triumphant procession.
I could see the past of a castle, once richly decorated, entwined with traces of women trapped in towers – Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and the Lady of Shalott – being delivered in boxes and, on opening, haunting the spaces with memories of their existence.
The exhibition is curated by East Midlands based independent producers Jane Greenfield and Sue Crabtree and is among the first initiatives in a new relationship between Arts Council England and the National Trust aimed at promoting contemporary arts and crafts in historic properties.

Photos by Sheila Burnett