SADDLE STITCH
Image: Detail of Community. James Fox. Courtesy of the artist.
James Fox is a Lancashire-based textile artist working in machine embroidery and reverse appliqué. His exhibition, Freedom of Movement, is at The Knitting & Stitching Show at Harrogate Convention Centre from 17-20 November, 2022. For SELVEDGE, he talks to Julie Parmenter.
JULIE PARMENTER: James, your Harrogate exhibition is a celebration of freedom of movement and includes a homage to the humble bicycle. Can you tell us why bikes were so inspiring to you, in this particular body of work?
JAMES FOX: The invention of the ‘safety bicycle’ in the 1880s, as well as the development of the railway system, allowed movement around the country as never before. The working class were able to get out from the grime of the factories, and cycle into the countryside on their day off. The owners of the factories they worked in could travel by train to their recently acquired shooting estates for the weekend. At the same time, socialism was spreading across Europe. These two factors inevitably conjoined, and socialist cycling clubs sprang into existence all over the U.K...
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