JANE WALKLEY
(b. 1970 Stockton-0n-Tees, UK)
Jane Walkley’s artistic practice considers how the regeneration of textile mills in the North of England evoke memory and attachment. She questions whether site-specific interactions can help bridge the gap between memory and place in the absence of workplace activities that took place in these repurposed buildings. Jane takes clay impressions from mill artefacts, used in woollen cloth production, to create moulds in which to cast jesmonite (eco-resin capable of replicating intricate detail). These jesmonite components are then woven piece by piece on an upright loom.
The exhibited work, with reproduced parts from the Hattersley Standard Loom (of Luddite fame), represents a page from the historic guard-books held at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, woven into the design of the ‘peg plan’ used to warp the loom. The finished tapestry takes on a sculptural quality that maintains a physical and visual connection to Yorkshire’s heritage, linking place, memory and materiality.
Peg Plan Study (2022)