REEL LIVES, 2013
SITE SPECIFIC
INVITED
Held in the permanent collection at Salts Mill, Saltaire
This site-specific artwork was created in memory of, and in recognition of, the real women of Saltaire drawn from the 1891 census. Women who were born in the parish, worked in the textile industry, married and had children there. Each woman has her own ‘memory plaque’ with her name, year of birth, age, marital status and occupation.
So little is known of these workers but Garfen investigated their histories and these biographies accompany the piece. Very few jobs were open to women (and none to married women), facts Garfen reflects upon in the accompanying works but it is Garfen’s painstaking and minute hand stitching and attentive research that make her tribute all the more moving. Editor, Embroidery magazine
Imagine my delight when I saw the name Ellen Tennant on the Caren Garfen exhibit. She was my Great Aunt! and lived at 14 Albert Road with her family.
Reel Lives is a very moving dedication to the women who worked here, and brings a sense of humanity to an empty space once filled with overbearing heat and noise. Telegraph & Argus
In-depth study of the census has produced evidence that 160 single women were mill workers, and a further 42 had other occupations, e.g. dressmakers, milliners, etc. Fifty-one married women were entered of whom one-fifth were working. Of the latter, only three were employed in the mill, and none of these had children.
A beautiful, memorable exhibition. I was amazed to find the names Crabtree, Barrett & Taylor on Caren Garfen’s work, as all my forebears had these names & worked in the mills in Rossendale, Lancashire!
One-quarter of the reels were placed into a storage area in the wall of the spinning room in Salts Mill. These reels were a metaphor for those women who, once they married, were discarded as mill workers.
42 reels
TIED BY THE APRON STRINGS, 2013
Tied by the Apron Strings illustrates the inequalities in occupational choices between males and females in the 19th century. Women’s occupations are hand sewn in pink onto one of the apron ties, and side labels give figures of how many women worked in particular jobs in the mid-1800s. On the second tie, the wide varieties of employment open to men, taken from the 1891 census, are sewn in blue.
Tied By The Apron Strings
Photo credit: Susan Crowe
HelloGoodbye :
myredthread
Craft Study Centre, University of the Creative Arts, Farnham
Exhibition curated by Professor Lesley Millar who has accumulated a small, but very choice, collection of 36 contemporary textile works over time
23 May to 2 September 2023
Process: Hand stitch
Materials: Textile, silk threads, 121 vintage reels, vintage sewing accessories
Exhibited in:
Cloth & Memory 2, Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire (2013)
People and Process, Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire (2014-2016)
Tied By The Apron Strings also exhibited in Construct, Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, North Wales (2014)