Lloyd’s Rules Series, influenced by historic shipbuilding. Mixed metals and plating with patinas. 2012-2018
These circular pieces use diagrammatic imagery from shipbuilding manuals dating from the late 19th century. These manuals belonged to my shipwright grandfather who worked on the Mersey ferries and at Cammell Laird shipbuilders during the second world war.
The piece ‘Lloyd's rules’, takes its name from ‘Lloyd’s Register Rules and Regulations’ which is known best for the classification and certification of ships. The organisation's name came from the 17th-century coffee house in London used by merchants, marine underwriters and others associated with shipping. Edward Lloyd, the coffee house owner, helped them to exchange information by distributing a printed sheet of all the news he heard.
‘Lloyd’s rules’ explores how we collect and display unlikely objects, from shipwrights who take a rivet as a souvenir from the ship they’ve worked on, to the fragment of a decimated warship mounted for display with a plaque of remembrance. In a similar way, these excerpts from shipbuilding manuals, shipping charts and maps are preserved in metal, highlighting their beauty and evoking the history of their former use.