Corinne and Daisy reflect on their Remote Nest Residency.

I’m Corinne a disabled artist. This year marks my sixth year of spending almost every day confined to this same 2 by 1.5 metre space, my bed.

During my residency myself and my only childhood and imaginary friend Daisy researched and developed our idea of transforming a Dolls House into an art gallery. I’m interested in and have experience of curating exhibitions. Having a Dolls House gallery mean’s I’d have full curatorial control, rather than going to a gallery and physically curating the space, which is impossible for me, the gallery could sit on my bed.

During my previous residency, myself and Daisy transformed a Dolls House into our childhood home, which we called ‘Satis House’. Aged 15 I read my first book Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations’. It was a struggle and both my family and teachers discouraged me. I couldn’t explain my fascination with Miss Havisham and her home Satis House, but I relate to her complex relationship with home and struggles with mental illness.

For this residency I spent a long time finding the perfect Dolls House, which turned out to be a second hand flat pack house. After assembling the house, the first thing I did was re-read ‘Great Expectations’. I decided the decor of the gallery would be based on the descriptions in Great Expectations of Miss Havisham’s home.

I knew I wanted my gallery to commission artists who struggle with mental health and or disabilities like myself. I felt a first exhibition focusing on works exploring Miss Havisham’s character was missing something, this ‘something’ was five other female characters. After spending so much time immersed in these characters worlds, I feel protective of all five women, particularly Bertha Mason.

Bertha Mason, a beautiful woman is known as the first ‘mad woman in the attic’, a character from Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, 1847. Mr Rochester her husband keeps her locked in a room on the third floor of Thornfield Hall. Brontë’s depiction of Bertha, for me felt extremely insensitive and was a difficult read.

I hope my future gallery can support six artists who have mental health conditions to create work inspired by these six female characters. The ending for these characters was often tragic, I wish to give them a new ending, an ending they deserve.

My Characters are:

Bertha Mason from Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, 1847

Anne Catherick from Wilkie Collins’s ‘The Woman in White’, 1859

Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations’, 1861

Alice from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, 1865

The Narrator from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, 1892

Mary Katherine Blackwood “Merricat” from Shirley Jacksons ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’,
1962

I’m so thankful for Janet’s support and letting me spread the residency out because of my health. I’ve made so much progress with my ideas for my future gallery and Janet’s encouragement has made me feel more confident about trying to bring my ideas to life.