Tanks & Tablecloths Chapter Two

Tanks & Tablecloths is an ongoing collaborative research project between artists Elizabeth Masterton and Lizzie Ridout, identifying common themes between the military and the domestic.

In May 2015, Tanks & Tablecloths: Chapter Two explored the extensive archives of Devonport Naval Heritage Centre (DNHC), relocating original artefacts and presenting these alongside new works in the gallery of Plymouth Arts Centre.The exhibition was a test-ground for our experimental concept of ‘an exploded book’: an attempt to define how a work might be ‘read’ in space, using four-dimensional interrelationships between text, subject and object.

DNHC holds a fascinating military collection which records the development of the dockyard and Plymouth’s role in the Royal Navy. It houses a large collection of ‘victualling’ artefacts from the Royal William Yard in Stonehouse. This vast facility, designed by Sir John Rennie and completed in 1831, became the major provisioning, or ‘victualling’, depot of the Royal Navy. Buildings in the Yard included a Cooperage, Slaughterhouse and Brewhouse (although the latter was never used for this purpose). Supplies for the Royal Navy were stored at the Yard, including equipment, food rations and clothing.

All artefacts appear as part of a generous loan from Devonport Naval Heritage Centre. All archive images courtesy of Devonport Naval Heritage Centre.