The Fleet Air Arm Museum was just one of the venues taking part in the Somerset Art Weeks 2011.
The Art Weeks, Exhibition and Events is a celebration of the work of around 400 artists, in over 100 venues across the county. This year's event provided the opportunity for artists and makers to explore new ways of working together, often around a particular theme or in response to a particular environment, and presented their work in different and sometimes unexpected ways and places.
Jon England's latest work responds to the pioneering restoration of the WW2 Grumman Martlett AL246 by the Museum's engineering department. This unique aircraft, the earliest remaining example of its type formed part of a new, more powerful, evolution of naval aircraft brought from the US via the lend lease scheme.
The Museum's Engineering Team have developed a unique approach to aircraft restoration drawing from the practices of both Fine-Art Conservation and Archaeology. The plane's entombing layer of 1960's gloss paint is being removed and a Chameleon-like chronology of post-war and original war-time colour-schemes unveiled. The additional employment of Forensic Science techniques allows the plane to be treated as a body, the evidence uncovered from under its fingernails. These processes in combination with archival documents, first hand testimony and detective work are revealing a detailed history of the aircraft.
The artworks encapsulate this history; its myriad connections to locations, incidents and most pertinently people - those individuals affected by the aeroplane whose daily activity has in turn left an unconscious archive of marks and scratches upon it. Surfaces have been constructed using materials specific to the aircraft, paint then being removed through processes which echo those of the restoration team. The resultant portraits draw poignant parallels between the skin of the aircraft and that of its human protagonists.