Paddy Hartley is an artist working in ceramic, fabric, and assemblage, exploring themes of memorialisation and remembrance and the origins of World War I reconstruction.
Paddy's residency at Royal Museums Greenwich
Paddy’s ‘Project Façade' series is a dedicated period of research into the Gillies archive, documenting the work of Sir Harold Gillies, who carried out pioneering life-changing and lifesaving surgery for servicemen in World War I who had experienced catastrophic facial injuries.
During his residency, Paddy focused on two men, Walter Yeo and William Vicarage, who both had strong connections to the National Maritime Museum and were both veterans of the Battle of Jutland.
Walter Yeo was a student at the Royal Hospital School, now the National Maritime Museum, and the Museum holds records of the ship William Vicarage was on when he was injured. Vicarage was a young watchmaker before the war.
While in residence, Paddy created new works in collaboration with the families of the men he traced. A set of embroidered clothing documents Walter Yeo’s life before and after the war. Ceramic pieces represent the injuries William Vicarage sustained, denying him the opportunity to further his career as a watchmaker after the war.
Paddy's artworks
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Yeo Tetraptych
Close-up image of part of the Yeo Tetraptych, a four-garment artwork describing the life story of Walter Ernest O'Neil Yeo. Yeo was a Battle of Jutland veteran and facial surgery patient of pioneering facial surgeon Sir Harold Gillies. He was also a former pupil of the Royal Hospital School Greenwich. Paddy used a variety of techniques to describe his story, including digital embroidery, appliqué, laser etching, laser-cutting and hand applied pyrography.
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Hospital Gown, inspired by the life of William Vicarage
Amongst the documents shared by the granddaughter of William Vicarage was a notebook given to him by his parents, in which he asked friends and fellow patients to contribute sketches, paintings, poems, and good wishes. All 32 pages have been digitised by the artist and embellished onto the entire gown to become a record of his time spent as an inpatient at Haslar and Sidcup.
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Solitaire set
When Paddy met with William Vicarage's granddaughter Rosemary, she told of experiences playing board games with her grandfather, including solitaire. Despite considerable reconstruction efforts, William had limited dexterity in both of his hands. When playing the game, he would ask her to make his moves for him.
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Close-up image of the solitaire counters
The details of clock faces on the solitaire counters refer to Vicarage's original trade as a watchmaker.
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Gloves
These handmade porcelain hands respond to the burn injuries and scar deformations sustained by William Vicarage. His injuries meant he could not continue his profession as a watchmaker; the burns left his hands so contorted that he was not able to handle the tools of his trade.
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Workwear apron, inspired by the life of Walter Yeo
This apron is created entirely from salvaged naval garments. It represents a generic workwear apron of the kind Walter would have worn in his civilian jobs, both as a steersman at Monsen’s chandlery and as a teetotal publican. The apron features laser-etched (and overworked with a hot pyrography tool) upper- and lower-placed maps of Plymouth and Yeo family/marital homes, the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, the Barbican, and other significant locations and places of work.
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Close-up details of the Yeo tetraptych
Each garment in the tetraptych was created using authentic naval fabric uniform salvage. Much of the research Paddy gathered came from the Gillies Archives, National Archives Kew and interviews with the Yeo family, following newspaper appeals.
Finding Walter Yeo and William Vicarage
Paddy Hartley gives an insight into the lives of the World War I servicemen and how they influenced his art.
Residencies at Royal Museums Greenwich
Find out more about the Residency Programme at Royal Museums Greenwich – an exciting, collaborative initiative for practitioners of all mediums to explore, interrogate and to bring to life the collections