The Warp / The Weft / The Wake: Holly Graham at Manchester Art Gallery

Since the summer of 2023, London-based artist Holly Graham has been embedded in residency at Manchester Art Gallery, pursuing research that reaches deep into the institution's own foundations. The resulting exhibition, on show until 6 September 2026, centres on a Victorian-style cotton printed costume modelled on a dress worn by African American abolitionist Sarah Parker Remond, who arrived in Manchester as part of a tour of Britain in 1859, delivering an anti-slavery speech at the Athenaeum, now part of the gallery's footprint.

Close-up of end-paper in ‘Royal Manchester Institution: Share Registers’, 1823. Manchester Central Library & Archive. Image courtesy of the artist.

Rare surviving examples of woven Manchester check, also known as ‘Guinea cloth’. Photo: Holly Graham

The cotton cloth carries screenprinted designs drawn from marbled endpapers of the Royal Manchester Institution's subscribers' ledgers, and rare surviving examples of woven Manchester check, also known as 'Guinea cloth' — cheaply produced cloth that travelled transatlantic trade routes to West African markets in exchange for enslaved people. Graham discovered these woven samples largely uncatalogued, hiding in plain sight among a run of print swatches. The check's resemblance to the ledger grid became central to her thinking: 'I was interested in using this format to highlight the names of those whose money was assigned to the founding of the institution, but also to signpost towards the names that are not included.'..

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Image Credits:

Lead: The Warp/ The Weft/ The Wake dress on display at Manchester Art Gallery. Image courtesy of the artist Holly Graham and Manchester Gallery. Photo: Michael Pollard.

All further images as credited in captions.