A real job is to make something

‘A real job is to make something’ was an exhibition in March 2018 co-curated with Anna Hart (AIR) in a textiles factory in Seven Sisters, London. The recently closed Wearlite factory produced English country clothing, horse blankets, sleeping bags and the first duvets sold in the UK. The aim was to make the space visible to visitors before it was sold and redeveloped and to highlight a community of making in Tottenham, touching on the wider context of precarious times for production locally and globally.

Six artists were commissioned to produce new work in response to the factory, variously drawing on its history of making, the remaining machinery as well as the physical properties of the space. Intended to create a pause to remember moments in time before the factory is redeveloped, the project explored labour, migration and memory.

'A Real Job is to make something' comprised of the larger exhibition in the factory and an associated exhibition, film-screening and music night at the nearby Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham. The screening included recent films by Chinese, North American and European filmmakers who have responded to factories and questions around manufacturing and labour through their work. The music night with Haringey music collective Kourelou, explored themes of labour and migration through Greek, Cypriot and Balkan folk music.

The associated exhibition at Bernie Grant Arts Centre included photographs of the factory by artist Miles Umney, original pattern pieces from the factory and audio extracts are from conversations with George Myristis, founder of Wearite, and Alessandra Savouri, a former Wearite machinist, recorded in February 2018. This material, and further objects gathered from the factory, will be deposited with the Bruce Castle Museum.

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