The Coffin Jump

As part of the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, The Coffin Jump is co-commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture Park and 14-18 NOW, to highlight women’s role in WWI, with specific reference to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). Located at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the work is presented across a variety of media, including a 10-metre long trench, an inscribed fence, a sign post, an ad-hoc stage/viewing platform, an intermittent archive recording of a woman’s voice and a live performance. The distributed elements of this narrative situation unfold through the audiences’ negotiation of objects, actions and words that, used as signs, intervene and start to undo the apparently static nature of the work, notifying action, culminating in the fleeting presence of the live performer: a woman on horseback, who jumps the fence. The Coffin Jump responds to a period during which women leapt forward and entered the social space in new ways, overcoming obstacles and lack of recognition, to emerge as a vital force.

Drawing on the context of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the riders are women from a local community of cross-country eventers.

Phrases on the front of the fence, including WOMAN SAVES MAN, are collaged from Palmer’s research notes into the FANY’s work on the front line. Citing FANY member Muriel Thompson’s WWI diaries, the back of the fence is inscribed NOTHING SPECIAL HAPPENED. Used repeatedly in Thompson’s writing, this ambiguous phrase alludes to long periods of mundanity, while simultaneously suggesting that the women had to take the sudden impact of violent action, in their stride.

An archive audio recording of Clara Butt singing The Enchantress (1917), in her deep contralto tones, signals the entrance of horse and rider at the Park and their approach to the fence. A reinterpretation of an original WWI public warning poster is situated on a signpost adjacent to the fence and trench. Its images and language are appropriated, replacing the danger of German aircraft, with the perceived threat of emergent women.

An illustrated publication to accompany the exhibition includes texts by Tamsin Dillon, Lisa Le Feuvre and Helen Pheby, published October 2018, coincides with The Coffin Jump artist's film, made with Sam Blair. A documentary film and an educational programme are produced by Yorkshire Sculpture Park to contextualise the work.

• https://ysp.org.uk/exhibitions/katrina-p...
• https://www.1418now.org.uk/commissions/t...