Along with the rooms, I have been making ink studies of interiors. A trip to Tranmer House at Sutton Hoo has given me lots of source material. The house is what I would call the perfect Cluedo House – a house that is crammed with lots of fascinating objects. Visitors are allowed to sit on the chairs, read books and put music on the gramophone. The house felt alive but at the same time frozen. The seats of the chairs have impressions of the people who had been sitting on them. Next to one chair there was some knitting placed on a table, as if a lady had been there only a moment ago.
Family photographs and paintings are a reminder to all of the comfort of a family home, and yet there is an eerie feel. The home felt haunted.
The kitchen smelt of freshly cooked food. A half eaten meal was left by the sink. In the corner there was objects covered by white fabric. I wondered what was hidden under the ghostly sheets.
Outside I could hear the sound of talking. I walked into the shed to find it coming from an old radio. For a minute I thought someone was standing behind me! As I turned around I saw a life sized, fully clothed, faceless mannequin.
By the door there was a small table with a typewriter on. There is a box full of postcards that someone has been collecting – a collection of memories. Through the door was another room filled with different chairs. Two of the chairs were attached high onto the wall of the room as if they were floating above the others.
I snapped away with my camera, documenting these familiar ghostlike objects and rooms in the mysterious Cluedo house.
