Trove, Goldsmiths and Dust.

I spent the weekend on a gallery site visit to Trove in Birmingham, had a great conversation with Charlie Levine. We spent ages talking about our love of glitter and, my own personal love, postcards and how the postal system is a complete mystery to us, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Often not working if you try to post anything with HRH Princess Diana on, I have discovered, anyway I digress. The visit was very productive, we talked about the placement of the works and the use of the original plinths that have been left behind from the Old Science Museum exhibits. My friend JR remembers that this room contained a full size railway engine, I can only imagine the wonderousness of this.
Charlie and I also talked about how when the Gold and Silversmiths of the Jewelry Quarter sold up, they would sell the floors separately as this is where the slivers of precious metal end up. The floors would then be burnt and the metal salvaged. They also banned the use of Brilliantine on the goldsmiths hair as the workers used to wipe their hands full of gold dust on their hair, the dust would stick on and when the workers got home they would wash the gold right out of their hair, supplementing their income. I like this idea of trace, moving a miniscule amount of the world around.