George Morl: Electrum Spektrum

‘Electrum Spektrum’ is an installation at Chelmsford Museum by Basildon born artist George Morl. The installation has grown from a series of projects and evolving conversations with students in Cornwall and Essex. It features artworks by Morl and the students, and work from their collaborative collection of art. The works trace the evolution of social and technological networks and reflect on conversations about their experiences of online spaces.

Since 2020 Morl has been working in partnership with students from Elm Class, Nancealverne School in Penzance as well as support centres in Essex: two regions linked by the development of wireless radio. This ongoing collaboration has also explored fiction in gaming and art, the development of communication history, as well as creating artwork and their own workshops.

In 2022 they began to build an art collection together centred on the needs of disabled people and encompassing a broad range of sensory engagements. They have acquired artworks by artists such as Grayson Perry with the selection based on their own interests and accessibility needs.

Earlier this year at St Andrew's Wickford Morl spoke about their experience as collector and in an exhibition called New Town, New Collection showed work by Grayson Perry, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as a selection of their own work. Through founding a collection which reflects on the communal legacies of New Towns, Plotlands, and the possibility of human connections across the virtual world, Morl visions a future art collection centring support. In their talk Morl shared the joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others.

Morl identifies with Perry’s use of imagination and construction of identity in his art, and sees parallels with using virtual spaces as a young person. It was Perry’s work that inspired Morl to study art at South Essex College in 2013.

A selection of works by Perry can be seen in the Ceramics Gallery at Chelmsford Museum. These include the 'Chelmsford Sissies' pot, the 'Julie Tile', the limited-edition print ‘England as seen from Lockdown in Islington’, which was created in 2021 during the Channel 4 series ‘Grayson’s Art Club’, and an 'Untitled' drawing depicting a hybrid of rural and urban Essex – a unique portrait of Perry’s hometown of Chelmsford.

Also to be seen at Chelmsford Museum is Behind the Rainbow, a collection of personal stories and experiences from the LGBTQ+ community, showing the creativity, complexity, and humanity of its members. This exhibition recognises the relationship between self-expression and identity and invites visitors to connect and empathise with the people behind the stories. 

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Joy Oladokun - Keeping The Light On.