The Cheese Board
The Cheese Board
Working as Heritage Architects M+R responded to Halton's historic rural trades by making Cheshire cheese using traditional methods and equipment to symbolise the vast network of local industry. Rural trades played a pivotal role in enabling the growth of Halton's industry; Cheshire cheese was essential food for communities and this installation is set up to resemble a feast which would be shared by groups of rural workers. The leather plates represent the tanneries, the board itself represents the saw mills and oral histories, played through concealed speakers, reflect lifestyles which are now distant memories. When presented to a contemporary audience the artwork layers vague recollections and shadows of the past with modern lifestyles and visions of the future. The film is a representation of the cheesemaking process which has been passed down, unchanged, through generations.