EBB AND FLOW

 

 Babylon Gallery, Ely - November 2022

 

With a focus on East Anglia, this work is an exploration of the different effects of water on the landscape and the people living there. There are two strands to the textile work.

 

Firstly, maps are used to suggest the constant flooding and renewal of the land over the centuries, from the draining of the fens in the 1650s to the condition and protection of the Norfolk Broads in the 1930s.

 

The tragic storm of 1953 and subsequent flooding informed other pieces of work and attempts to show the effect on people’s lives, particularly in low-lying places like Jaywick and Canvey Island.

What is left once the water recedes? Possessions such as clothing are washed up and partially destroyed. The textile pieces make use of household items such as dishcloths and dusters which were recycled as part of rationing during and after WW2. Vintage fabrics of the 1940s were sewn onto water soluble material to suggest fragmentation and destruction.