Contemporary sculptor announced to exhibit alongside Jane Austen’s iconic travelling writing desk in a city-wide programme of events to mark her 250^th anniversary year

Contemporary sculptor Jocelyn McGregor has been announced as the artist exhibiting alongside Jane Austen’s iconic travelling writing desk, which is on loan to God’s House Tower this winter.

The famous writing desk will return to Southampton for the first time since the author lived in the city over 200 years ago, as the centrepiece of a fascinating exhibition where fans will be able to see up-close the desk on which she penned early drafts of some of her now internationally famous novels.

The exhibition, celebrating the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth next year, brings one of the most famous writing desks in the world to God’s Tower from the 15^th of November 2024 through to the 23^rd of February 2025. It marks the start of a city-wide programme of events to celebrate the anniversary year that will include opportunities for local communities to get involved through workshops, creative commissions and activities.

Lovers of history and literature will be able to see for themselves where Austen wrote or revised some of her most famous works, and ‘a space’ arts has commissioned artist Jocelyn McGregor to create a new contemporary art installation that will accompany the exhibition of Austen’s desk. Jocelyn’s multi-media art installation will explore the often intense female relationships in Jane Austen’s letters and novels.

Jocelyn answered an open call to artists earlier this year, and has now been announced as the artist that will be exhibiting alongside the desk. She is known for her work as a sculptor, but will be bringing performance, body casting and sculpture to the exhibition.

Talking about her work, Jocelyn said: “In my artistic practice, I’m on the hunt for the point of transition between internal and external, organic and synthetic, and real and imagined worlds. Using my own body as a conduit, I combine beauty products, industrial, domestic, organic and synthetic materials and forms to create supernatural hybrid monsters and their imagined habitats.”

Jocelyn explained how her love of the gothic has inspired her exhibition. She said: “With gothic literature and with Jane Austen you have to read between the lines. The Regency period is often seen as one of civility and forced politeness, but there’s so much more to it. Austen wrote about a lot of topics that weren’t the norm for women back then. She was incredibly progressive. We are an audience looking at her work more than 200 years after it was created. It’s fascinating to think what an audience 200 years on from now will make of mine. I’m very excited about this opportunity.”

When asked what people could expect from her work, Jocelyn said: “Large scale installations, body casting and a sense of performance. It is a contemporary work, delving into a new performance piece which includes a take on the female relationships of the characters within Austen’s work, with a gothic twist.”

The writing desk is on loan from the British Library, with support from Art Fund’s Weston Loan Programme. God’s House Tower is an award-winning heritage and art venue in the heart of Southampton’s Old Town, owned by Southampton City Council and managed by Southampton-based charity ‘a space’ arts, who have worked with Southampton Forward to secure the loan of the desk.