The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past by Nicola Turner

Artist Nicola Turner has disrupted Tyntesfield house with The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past. Throughout the house, Turner has created a series of evocative installations made from organic ‘dead’ matter, such as wool and horsehair. These materials hold traces of memory; the horsehair has been salvaged from old mattresses and furniture, therefore absorbed with a lived history from both its time as a domestic object and as part of a living animal. The installations explore ways of listening to past, present and future.

As well as some of our grand public rooms, like the Library and Main Hall, you’ll see spaces not normally open to the public, including bedrooms and storerooms (namely the Flaxborton, Turret, London and Belmont bedrooms, that now contain various objects of the vast Tyntesfield collection).

The wool and horsehair installations respond to the house, often incorporating objects from Tyntesfield’s historic collection, like furniture, books and ceramics.

Nicola Turner’s installation invites us to reflect on Tyntesfield’s history, encouraging us to re-see the house and to interrogate the memories it contains.