Image: Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
A dustpan-like sculpture covered in red and gold fabric is the subject of a new episode of the podcast series ‘Your Art, Unlocked’, which examines unexpected objects in UK museum collections. The work, Nina Saunders’s ‘Mr William Morris’s Pan for the Application of Utilitarian Cleaning’ (2007), is held by Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.
The episode was published on July 21, 2026, with art historian, writer and educator Melissa Baksh visiting Pallant House Gallery to investigate Saunders’s sculpture. The object is listed in the gallery’s collection under the artist’s name and date of 2007. No exhibition dates are given for the work, and the episode is presented as a collection-focused podcast feature rather than an announcement of a temporary display.
At first glance, the sculpture resembles an ordinary household dustpan. Its rich red and gold textile covering, however, makes it appear soft and decorative rather than practical or durable. The contrast between its familiar form and altered material is central to the episode’s investigation of how an everyday object can become strange, theatrical and difficult to classify.
The title places the work in dialogue with the Victorian designer and writer William Morris. According to the episode’s supporting text, Saunders’s sculpture relates to Morris’s belief that ordinary household objects should be both useful and beautiful. By transforming a utilitarian cleaning implement into an ornate object, Saunders engages with that proposition while unsettling the distinction between domestic function and artistic display.
Baksh speaks with Saunders about her interest in Morris and her continuing practice of transforming furniture. Miriam O’Connor Perks, curator at Pallant House Gallery, discusses how the sculpture came about. The recording took place at the gallery in June 2026, bringing the artist’s account and the institution’s curatorial perspective together around a single object in the collection.
‘Your Art, Unlocked’ is a podcast series focused on artworks that may prompt the question, “what is that?” Its second series includes works from the Hunterian, the University of Warwick Art Collection, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, and Ulster Museum. The first series featured collections from Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums, F. E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Walker Art Gallery, The Box Plymouth and Cyfarthfa Castle & Park.
The Nina Saunders episode is produced as part of the series’ effort to make publicly held art more familiar through conversations with artists, curators and specialist hosts. It is available alongside the other episodes of ‘Your Art, Unlocked’, with the series supported by Bloomberg Connects.
