In Their Space is a touring exhibition by three sculptors who were resident artists at The Red House, Aldeburgh between 2020-2023. Each of the artists’ works in this exhibition were made in response to their individual research projects at Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears former home.
The residencies were organised with Royal Society of Sculptors. The exhibition tours to RSS Dora House, London on 29th March 2025.
With the generous support of the Institute of East Anglian Artists.
Alison Cooke’s residency at The Red House fell at the tail end of the pandemic and it seemed fitting to pay tribute to Britten’s nurse and carer Rita Thomson. Between 1974-76 when Britten had lost the use of his hands, Rita enabled him to continue composing. “A Birthday Hansel”, composed by Britten whilst in her care, and named by Rita, has been scored into clay by pianist Ashley Fripp. The clay was dug from the Aldeburgh Brick Pit, the same clay that made the bricks that built the Red House. The work aims to draw attention to the important role of Rita and all carers, capturing both the silent composition and the physical connections between carer and cared for.
On her residency in 2022-23, Rebecca Griffiths explored the megastructure of Sizewell B nuclear power station and reflected on its current and future impact on the delicate coastal environment. Since then she has been making ceramic sculptures that imagine a future landscape in which remnants of the nuclear power industry have been dredged from the North Sea. Fragmentary industrial forms appear to collide, ravaged by geological forces and encrusted with natural and toxic sediments. Griffiths builds the precise and geometric forms using slabs, before sawing or breaking them apart and combining them with ‘debris’ – made using molds and casts from the Suffolk shoreline, from ceramic extrusions or broken fragments. The use of sculptural glazes, and diverse firing temperatures further develops the rich and tactile surfaces.
Hannah Honeywill’s residency at the Red House explored the relationship between Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, who spent most of their 37-year partnership during a time when homosexuality was criminalised in the UK. Gilded Shadow, a sculpture positioned outside the Dovecote Studio, captures the shadow cast by two of Britten and Pears’ dining chairs. Made from steel and gilded with 23¾-carat gold, it serves as both a tribute to their relationship and creative legacy and a reminder of the restrictions they faced. Open Secret 1-5 consists of five screen prints based on photographs of Britten and Pears taken before decriminalisation in 1967. Transformed into bitmaps, the gilded figures obscure their identities, emphasising the tension between the visibility of their lives and the enforced invisibility of their love.
