Current interest in the textile histories of Norwich has inspired a number of contemporary artists to make reference to these histories in their work. Through its large scale and city location the work often reaches out to audiences who may not be aware of the textiles which have contributed so much to the fabric of the city. Artists are welcome to contribute to this site any contemporary work which references the textiles of Norwich.

RUBIA, RUBIA

Artist: Patricia Derrick

Title: Rubia, Rubia

Performance event: CAN05, Norwich, 2005, St. John Maddermarket and surrounding streets and alleyways.

Artist’s Statement:
The installation and performance was intended to make visible Norwich's long-forgotten madder dye and cloth industry. I was intrigued by the thought that the buildings in the area were saturated with a secret history and considered that this history could be drawn to the surface through the leaving of clues and traces.

The architecture of the medieval St.John Maddermarket Church presented metal structures which proved perfect for weaving and wrapping; tiny bundles of fabric were inserted into the crevices between the ancient flint walls, with cords being pushed into the bark of trees in the churchyard.

I raised madder plants from seed (Rubia tinctorum) and these were planted in the small bed at the front of the Church.

The extravagant performance garment and volumes of fabric not only made reference to Norwich's importance in the cloth industry but also celebrated the excitement and spectacle of changing fashion and of course the special thrilling significance of being enveloped in RED.

Hand-dyed gloves were exchanged with passers-by in return for compliments. The gloves were also placed in the shop windows along Pottergate where there are a number of small designer fashion retailers.

My attempts at dyeing with madder proved unsuccessful and I only managed to achieve a murky brown. I decided it was, however, quite appropriate to use modern synthetic fabrics and dyes, especially after reading about Vivienne Westwood's work.

TRANS

Artist: Sarah Horton

Title: Trans

Date: as part of Norwich City’s Waterways Arts Trail, May – June 2006.

Artist’s statement:
Trans was an 18 x 10 metre intervention at the Read Mills site currently undergoing reconstruction alongside Carrow Bridge in Norwich. The artwork was designed to draw attention to a state of change in the present and historic function of the building, incorporating a design of bold printed typographic phrases or poetry. The title ‘Trans’ refers to the ever-changing uses of the river and the transformative nature of industrial construction sites.

The idea of ‘clothing’ a building is a metaphor for transition. Those who live in or pass regularly through the Carrow Bridge and King Street area of Norwich have seen a gradual shift in function of these buildings: changes from the factories, mills and loading stations of the past to offices, shops and luxury residencies of the near future.

Liz Lampard, an emerging poet and established visual artist based in Norfolk, collaborated with me by writing the short poem which became the main focus of the design and formed the ‘warp and weft‘ of the pattern in the background of the design. The typography and layout was designed to mimic the visual vernacular of advertising hoardings and the word RECERO printed as a reminder of the first advertising on the site dating back to the 1930s: a large painted logo promoting a brand of wheat flakes made on site.

This former flour mill has also been home to the manufacturing of textiles and Cooper’s ‘Wholesale Confectionary Works’ from the 1890s to 1928. Prior to the textiles factory the site was home to a number of small cottages and over 200 years later the site is once again to become domestic dwellings, this time a number of luxury apartments. The poem used in the design makes reference to the river and to the occupations of those who lived and worked on this unique site through the past 200 years.

In the past I have worked with other artists or artist-led organizations such as OUTPOST, the Norwich Fringe Festival, the Maddermarket Theatre and AccessArt. I have made specific installations in sites such as the crypt and prison cells in Norwich’s Guildhall and in the 16th century Queen of Hungary Yard, also in Norwich.

‘Trans’ was part of the Water City International II Project in Norwich, sponsored by the New Writing Partnership, the Arts Council and Norwich City Council. Part of ‘Water Cities’, a European programme of major environmental improvement, the specific aim of Waterways was to present a series of art-based installations inspired by the theme of water positioned along the River Wensum which weaves directly through the city of Norwich.

NORWICH RED, 2006

Artists: Presence
Presence is a Norwich-based group of artists who create work collaboratively, as well as organising arts events together and making individual work. The members are Ann Christie, Helen Cranmer, Jan Dedman, Helen Derbyshire and Frances Wall.

Title of Work: Norwich Red

Installation event: Waterways Arts Trail, May-June 2006

Artists’ Statement:
Weaving and dyeing cloth was the basis of the Norwich economy for more than 600 years. Our interest in this often overlooked industrial history led us to research the role of the river in its development.

The historians at the Carrow House Costume and Textile Study Centre in Norwich provided us with a wealth of information about the dyes and weaving associated with Norwich over hundreds of years. Norwich Red is the name of a bright red dye which was developed early in the nineteenth century by Michael Stark. His dyeworks were situated by the river on Duke Street in Norwich where the former electricity board offices now stand empty, awaiting redevelopment by the Targetfollow group. Yarns and cloths were sent to Stark's dyeworks from all over the country to be dyed; he made a breakthrough not only in the brilliance of the colour but in dyeing silk warps and wool wefts to the same shade. It is hard today to imagine how busy (and filthy) the river must have been when the industry of both dyeing and weaving was at its height. An elderly visitor to the exhibition of Norwich Shawls at the Castle Museum in 1995 remembered that his mother told him that in Norwich the “river always ran red”.

Our project refers to this history by putting something of it back into the river in the form of reflections. We have taken the colour of the Norwich Red dye and text relating to its composition and have displayed these on the windows of the empty electricity board offices on Duke Street. The words are designed to be read in reflection, and words and colour will come in and out of focus as they ripple in the water of the Wensum.

The group acknowledges the support of Targetfollow Group Ltd, The Costume and Textile Study Centre, and Fitt Signs

SALES LEDGER, NORWICH RED, WOVEN CARGOES

Artist: Jeanette Durrant

Sails Ledger 84cm W x 146cm H
Digital print on prepared calico. A montage of cloth ledger orders, sails, balemarks from the outer packing of exported cloth, and a sample of Norwich Damask.

Norwich Red Design for wall panel
Digital print on calico. A montage using samples of Norwich Stuffs from a Bridewell Museum pattern book, and a weaver working on a Drawloom.

Woven Cargoes 138cm H x 60cm W
Digital print on calico of sails, Norwich Stuffs from pattern books, and a Drawloom.


Artist’s statement:
My current work has been inspired by research into the Norwich weaving industry
and the global export of worsted woollen cloth during the 18th and 19th century.
Agents took pattern books with samples of cloth to Europe, Russia, Norway, and Sweden, and 10 cwt. bales of tightly packed cloth wrapped in jute were transported by wherry to boats waiting at Great Yarmouth. The cloth was prized for its colour, pattern, and quality of weaving.

The installation for my Textile Culture MA degree show (2004) using the shapes of sails and a half scale reproduction of a black wherry sail allowed me to explore my other interests in architectural space, mapping boundaries, and connections between the past and present. Images of sailing ships, sales ledgers and luxury Norwich ‘stuffs’ have been combined and digitally printed on calico.