The Glass House Exhibition
Michele Selway is a visual artist specialising in the historical photographic technique Wet Plate Collodion. Her work often has a documentary feel and is mostly inspired by people and places.
Here she presents a series of Ambrotypes of the Cactus Collection at Wythenshawe Horticultural Centre, using the Victorian photographic Wet Plate Collodion technique. The work focuses on the collection which was gifted to the Manchester City Corporation in 1903 upon the Death of Charles Darrah, a successful businessman, who during his lifetime built a large glass house to display his collection of cactus and succulents at his home in Heaton Moor.
When Charles Darrah was asked why he collected cacti when so many more collectors preferred orchids, he replied that cacti were always fascinating whether in flower or not, but an orchid when it finished flowering, was “Just a stick”. The collection which once consisted of 1,200 varieties of Cacti and 400 specimens of other succulent plants, have remained in the public eye as they journeyed across South Manchester from their first home at Holy Point, Heaton Moor to Alexandra Park and finally here at Wythenshawe Park Horticultural Centre, with the first move reportedly being made by Peter, Alexandra Park’s horse and cart.
The collection continued to make the news when in 1913 on November 11th the cactus house of Alexandra Park was damaged by a bomb. “Militant Suffragette “arson squads” and “bomb troops” were at work last night and succeeded in doing a considerable amount of damage. "The Cactus House at Alexandra Park, Manchester, containing a collection valued at $50,000, was wrecked by a bomb.” (The New York Times, November 12, 1913.) No one was ever prosecuted for this outrage, but in her diary, suffragette Kitty Marion admitted to planting the bomb.
By placing the images back inside the glass house, Michele encourages the public to explore the images as three-dimensional objects; reflecting on their past whilst also looking forward to the future of our green spaces and the value we place on these spaces today.
Michele Selway is a visual artist specialising in the historical photographic technique Wet Plate Collodion. Her work often has a documentary feel and is mostly inspired by people and places.
