The winner of the annual Christ’s College Art Prize is Madison Bennett.
Her entry – ‘Souvent me souvient’ – is walnut ink, gouache and acrylic on vellum and will hang in the Middle Combination Room (the MCR).
‘Souvent me souvient’, which means ‘I often remember’, is a phrase associated with Lady Margaret Beaufort, the College founder.
Madison is studying for a PhD in the Department of Archaeology. She is a book artist and researcher funded by the Cambridge Trust and a Christ’s College Geoffrey Thorndike Martin PhD Studentship.
Her research investigates lost techniques of medieval manuscript and parchment/vellum production.
The judges praised the work as ‘a small, jewel-like piece, pleasing in its conception and execution.’
Madison describes her piece as a ‘literal and conceptual palimpsest meant to represent several layers of Christ’s.’ She uses calligraphy, pochoir (a print making technique using stencils), and erasure.
A palimpsest is a manuscript page on which an initial layer of script has been erased, and new text has been written to replace it.
Madison’s work begins with the College grace in Latin written over and over in a gothic textura script, some of which is erased and replaced with short quotes from famous alumni written in gothic cursive.
Madison said:
‘The neon pink disrupts the historical remnants, introducing unexpected elements of modernity and joy.’
Madison links the creative piece to her own academic research.
She said:
My PhD focuses on evaluating the quality of medieval parchment. As a writing substrate, it has the unique ability to be written on scraped down and written on again. I like a world in which my mistakes are essential—where they can be as hidden, or as obvious as I choose to make them.
Chair of the Visual Arts Committee, Professor Carrie Vout said:
‘Thanks to everyone who contributed, to the members of the College’s Visual Arts Committee who did the judging, and to Martin Johnson for the generous donation that makes this annual prize possible.’