Helen Kaplinsky is an Artist and Curator based in London

Servant Rose ,Wood, Perspex, dust and paint detritus, 60 watt light bulb, 1.5m x 1.5m

Meeting at Newton Grove, Chapeltown, Leeds, 2005

This work was produced as a site specific installation in a Victorian town house basement as part of Meeting at Newton Grove, an Arts Council funded exhibition, organised by Monitor Art Collective.

The basement, for which the work was made, was originally the quarters for the servants of the house. I chose to work in a small cubby hole which was used for food storage, specifically for the hanging and drying of meat. Subsequent to this it was used as a storage space, articulated by objects rather than people. The mammoth clearing out of the basement set alight dust, cobwebs and flaking paint. This detritus was used to redraw the Victorian form of decoration- the ceiling rose.