‘In working out the schedule of events to coincide with the opening of ‘Balcony Life: A Nomadic Dye Garden’, we decided to revisit ‘Journey’ as one of the first exhibits in the garden. We laid out the fabric to access what remained after two years in storage, and the fact that a third of the piece has been repurposed in other art projects. Originally 120m of fabric, now only 80 remain. In laying the material out on the pathway, it soon became clear we had created an unintentional momentary installation. Laying out the recycled hotel sheets rather than staking it into the ground allowed us to appreciate anew the wonderful patterns Ross created using natural dyes and rust.
Journey Retraced‘ takes the original fabric and retraces our current circumstances through the eyes of Jonathan Dredge and Ross Belton. For this installation, they faced with a much smaller churchyard and only two thirds of the fabric remaining, which has given the new installation a very personalised feel. ‘Journey Retraced’ is proving very popular with our younger visitors. We received lovely sketch of the piece after one little girls visit.
First shown at the Contemporary Textiles Fair at the LandmarkArts Centre, in 2018, we are looking forward to seeing it installed in its new temporary home.
journey | ˈdʒəːni |
• an act of travelling from one place to another.
• a long and often difficult process of personal change and development.
• a long and often difficult process of personal change and development.
‘An estimated 258 million people worldwide don’t live in the country of their birth. What started off as a personal journey as an artist has become much more, making me look at journeys, people on the move and migration.’ Ross Belton
This textile installation considers both meanings: the rust scarring the cloth, like migration trails across the globe, or personal obstacles to overcome; the cloth meandering through space, traversing the geography of the personal.