World at Her Fingertips

‘World at her Fingertips’ are bookends commissioned by Design Curator Dr Stacey Hunter for Dundee Design Festival 2024, a UNESCO City of Design Dundee project.  The work responds to short book ‘’Dundee’s Two Intrepid Ladies: A Tour Round the World, an account of around the world travels taken by 19th century pioneering female journalists Marie Imandt and Bessie Maxwell.  They were assigned the project by DC Thomson, which involved visiting ten different countries and reporting back on architecture, interiors, art and culture they encountered, from Paris to Shanghai.

The commission also marks 10 years of Dundee’s designation as a UNESCO City of Design and 20 years of Edinburgh as a UNESCO city of Literature.

I responded to the brief by taking casts of the dominant/writing hand of current female Journalists based in Scotland as a way of continuing/connecting themes around design, culture, Feminism etc. introduced by Marie Imandt and Bessie Maxwell in the 19th century with similar themes today.  Eilidh Akilade and Gabriella Bennet’s current journalist work involving travel, reflections on design, culture and identity made them relevant subjects bookending the present with the past.  I am very grateful for their involvement.

Their stylised hands reflect the classical sculptures Imandt and Maxwell describe on their travels in Italy through gesture and carved stone material.  They adopt a relaxed and gentle pose around the globe form to be at-one-with, rather than gripping/in possession of it – reflecting their styles of writing.  The spheres represent the globe to reflect, travel and global connectedness of the current-day Jounalists with the world at her fingertips.

It was important for me to work with two active female Journalists, and invite them to input/co-design the representation of their dominant writing hand.

Both Eilidh Akilade and Gabriella Bennet made a one-day workshop visit to cast their dominant writing hands.  We decided on hand gestures that looked and felt natural to them yet reflected classical sculptural inspirations. Throughout the day we discussed each other’s practice and wider cultural ideas from our respective disciplines.  This exchange informed how the bookends eventually materialised in form, materials and colour.

As this was to be an up-to-date representation and not a pastiche of the past, I wanted their input on design elements.  Throughout the making process I would send Eilidh and Gabriella colour samples for them to comment on. 

After taking the initial life-cast of the Journalist’s hands, I carved away all signs of skin texture and stylised them to appear as classical carved sculpture, yet still recognisable as Gabriella Bennet and Eilidh Akilade’s dominant writing hands.  I then moulded and cast the final carvings using marbled pigments to create the final works.

Alongside hand gestures of ancient marbles, other inspirations include post-modern bright colour and collage/juxtaposition of geometric shapes with figure such as Grace Jones’ Maternity Dress by Jean-Paul Goude.

Photography: Reuben Paris