THE KEEPER
The Keeper receives, records and maintains the Dufton Hoarde.
Objects are placed. Fragments are examined. The records are revised.
Where confirmation is not possible, classifications are kept open
The Keeper is responsible for what has been retained and for the spaces around what is missing.
The Keeper is artist Dawn Hurton.
The role emerged through the making of the Hoarde. The Keeper cares for the objects and records without claiming to speak for every history they contain.
She is the artist as custodian: making, observing, recording and maintaining the museum.
The Hoarde arrived bit by bit.
I made objects. Gathered discarded fibres. Walked the same Pennine paths. Read records. Returned to the ground.
The Registers came later. Then the labels, the fragments, the things missing from one place and found in another.
I built the rooms around them.
The Keeper appeared.
I had been there all along.