Golden Oldies

Loop took place at the Bankfield Museum in Halifax, an important museum and archive of textile history, housed in an industrialist’s mansion and curated by June Hill ( http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/leisure/museums-galleries/bankfield-museum/index.html). The Loop exhibition was curated by Jane Langley, also curator of Spin (see outcome 1), and continued Spin’s area of research and investigation.I worked g closely with June Hill, curator at Bankfield, in the development of two works: a sculptural object and a wall piece. I was struck by Victorian assemblages of insects in glass domes and repeated use of butterfly and moth motives in textile decoration and design. On further investigation these depictions varied in accuracy, in terms of anatomical observation and species location from precision to wild exaggeration. Importantly, they also depicted landscape scenes that have vastly changed through human intervention or agricultural practice. ‘Golden Oldies’, is a work that reacts to scenes of pastoral success and patterns of equilibrium often found in floral design. It displays, on a prong of steel, four extinct British butterfly species. The work continued my focus on landscape in the investigation of specific sites and species. The Large Tortoiseshell species, for example, was made extinct when the ‘introduction’ of Elm disease led to the destruction of its larval food plant; hence ‘eaten out of town’. The Large Copper butterfly lived on the East Anglia fenlands and as habitats were drained this species also declined beyond recovery. The exhibition was opened with a public discussion of the works with the artists, curator, museum director and representatives from the Northern Arts Council. It was accompanied by a catalogue and essay by Janis Jefferies, Professor of Visual Art at Goldsmiths College: ‘Loop’ (ISBN No 1 85924 2855). Press articles are also available online (http://www.thepatternlab.com/images/loop/00%20loop%20press.pdf)