Strands of Place and Time

Running until 3 November 2019, Strands of Place and Time is a new exhibition exploring and sharing original perspectives on cultural heritage and migration in response to world textiles in the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, Lancashire.

The exhibition brings together new textile, film and ceramic work by Manchester School of Art’s Alice Kettle, Jane McKeating, Elnaz Yazdani, Nigel Hurlstone and Poppy Cartwright, with a textile installation by Omaid, a local group of refugees and asylum seekers newly-arrived in the north-west from around the world.

A diverse mix of textiles from Africa, India, China, Persia, Greece, Switzerland and France inspired the artists and makers. The work they have created in response to these textiles is displayed throughout Gawthorpe Hall, the grade I listed Elizabethan mansion house that was the ancestral home of Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth, the textile collection’s founder.

Inspired by Janina cloth from Gawthorpe's collection, Alice Kettle has worked in collaboration with three refugee women; Asmaa, Nahome Bukasa and Susan Kamara, to created an embroidered Janina screen.

Jane McKeating’s collection of printed and embroidered handkerchiefs creates a new narrative around souvenir handkerchiefs and the Swiss textile industry.

Elnaz Yazdani’s collection of contemporary neckpieces explores her Persian cultural heritage and Nigel Hurlstone’s film creates a narrative in response to World War One souvenir postcards.

Bringing together embroidery and ceramics, Poppy Cartwright's hand-built and hand-decorated ceramic vessel is inspired by voyages and tales depicted in Chinese embroideries and ceramics.

Finally, in response to African, Indian and European passementerie in the collection, Omaid have created a dramatic textile installation embellished with colourful pom-poms and tassels, yarn-bombing the Hall’s 19th century Gothic Revival staircase designed by Sir Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin.

Strands of Place and Time is at The Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, Lancashire until 3 November 2019.