A Tall Order Exhibition

Sound of the Mill and Worker Bees

I’m please to announce that I’ve been invited by curators Dr Derek Horton and Dr Alice Correia to take part in A Tall Order exhibition at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale.

The artworks selected for exhibition are ‘My Rochdale Lad‘ Pocket, Worker Bees and Sound of the Mill.

The exhibition runs in Galleries 1, 2, 3 & 4 from 4 February to 6 May 2023.

Artists taking part in A Tall Order exhibition
Artists taking part in A Tall Order exhibition

This invitation follows a wonderful conversation I had with Dr Horton when I shared my work at Touchstones in September 2022.

A Tall Order
A Tall Order

In the 1980s, Touchstones was known as Rochdale Art Gallery. Its daring and innovative approach to exhibition and education programming positioned it on the national map.

Led by Exhibition Officer, Jill Morgan, the focus on exhibiting artists engaged in critical and socio-political practice gave a platform to those who were not being offered the opportunity to show their work in other high profile institutions.

A Tall Order! is an invigorating look at the artwork made and exhibited here during the 1980s by a generation of artists, many of whom were women, young, working class and Black.

Featuring key works from this time and demonstrating how this period influenced many artists, the show will include loans from both public and private collections brought together from around the UK. Alongside selected works from Rochdale’s own collection, the exhibition will also present a series of three new and exciting commissions by contemporary artists, Lubna Chowdhary, Sarah Joy Ford and Jade Montserrat.

Generously supported by a grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Arts Council England and Friends of Rochdale Art Gallery funding, A Tall Order! is curated by independent research curators Dr Derek Horton and Dr Alice Correia.

A Tall Order
Touchstones logo
Touchstones

Summer 2022

For the past few months I’ve been busy designing & stitching a new artwork named ‘Summer 2022’ . 

Last year I was honoured to be invited by artist Harry Meadley to take part in Free-For-All at Touchstones Rochdale from 7-10th September 2022.

I created an event called ‘Stitched Memories’ to collect Rochdale’s memories of the 2022 heatwave for a new artwork – a companion piece to Summer ‘76. The responses were handwritten on postcards and displayed within the gallery.

My original idea was to create a single artwork of around 400 words. In reality, after collating so many wonderful hand written phrases a unique story started to evolve – enough for two artworks.

The artworks cover the period from early summer, through the heatwave and drought and end with the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II (which occurred during the time I was at Free-For-All).

Each piece is 21 x 21cm, hand embroidered and hand stitched with vintage Sylko thread onto cotton cloth. 

Summer 22 Part 1
Summer 2022 Part 1
Summer 22 Part 2
Summer 2022 Part 2
Part 1 - detail
Part 1 – detail
Part 1 - detail
Part 1 – detail
Part 2 - detail
Part 2 – detail

This is the first time I’ve created an artwork from a ‘Stitched Memories’ event and would definitely like to host another one in the future.

Thank you the curators at Touchstones, Harry Meadley and all the visitors who contributed to Summer 2022.

Free for All at Touchstones Rochdale

I’m please to announce that I’ve been invited by Artist Harry Meadley to take part in Free for All at Touchstones Rochdale – in an activity called ‘Stitched Memories‘. I’ll be in Gallery 4 from the 7-10th September collecting your words for a new site specific artwork based on Rochdale’s memories from 2022. Pop along and take part!

The final artwork – Summer 2022 – will be a companion piece for Summer ’76.

Free for all - Touchstones Rochdale
Summer ’76 will be on show at Free for All – Touchstones Rochdale

I’ll be bringing several of my artworks to share and inspire you.

MY Rochdale Lad
My Rochdale Lad Pocket | Hand Embroidered Textile Art | 31 x 20 cm

Stitched Memories – Touchstones Rochdale

What are your memories from Summer 2022?

Multi-award-winning textile artist Catherine Hill will be at Touchstones from the 7th-10th September and is looking for your help for a new artwork she’s designing.

Catherine creates hand stitched embroideries all about her own childhood memories growing up in Rochdale during the 1970’s; and for her latest artwork, she’ll be collecting and stitching Rochdale’s memories all about “Summer 2022”. Anyone can take part and all responses are anonymous. Pop along, write a phrase or a sentence or two and they could end up being stitched into a new embroidery. Catherine will have lots of art to share and inspire you.

“Summer ’76” journals the hottest summer of the 1970’s, and nearly fifty years later with more heatwaves, Catherine plans to stitch and document Rochdale’s experience of 2022.

Touchstones Rochdale

I look forward to seeing you there.

Update: January 2023

There’s some wonderful event coverage including a video about Free for All on Harry Meadley’s Website.

Image courtesy: Harry Meadley
Image courtesy: Harry Meadley
Image courtesy: Harry Meadley
Image courtesy: Harry Meadley