Crisisum humanitarus

Jenny Pope has been inspired by the marine fossils in the Cathedral’s Frosterley Marble altar, containing now extinct animal shells and corals which grew one surface line daily; a clock preserved in deep time.

In response, Jenny has installed contemporary ‘fossils’ made of waste plastic sheets, sewn together using dressmaking shapes, referencing our clothes as outer layers, forming human scale cocoons, shelters and/or containers. For Jenny the making process is important. She has used sewing, which she finds meditative and therapeutic, to create a sense of protection against the uncertainties ahead.

By siting this work at the Cathedral’s high altar, Jenny asks us to examine the wounds of environmental exploitation and extraction and to consider the part we play in this. By contrasting deep time with the immeasurably short time we now have ahead to act responsibly, Jenny is posing questions about our resilience to act and our communal moral…