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ARCHIVE 2014
17th May 2014 - 29th June 2014
17th May – 29th June
Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley is a former worsted mill in transition. Since ceasing cloth manufacture six years ago the family owners have embarked on a complete renovation of this imposing historic site. As part of that exercise a Gallery has been opened in the former cloth warehouse and an archive created to preserve the history of the mill and it’s people. Inviting the public into the previously secret world behind the mill gates and maintaining the thread of creativity that started many hundreds of years ago is key to the family’s vision for the future of Sunny Bank Mills.
A year ago Des Pattison was appointed our first artist in residence. Accompanied in his journey by artist Pat Harvey and photographer Pete Harvey, the three artists have spent that time recording elements of the history of the mill and it’s people. This exhibition is about the mill and bringing back the voices and memories of the past.
All three artists have recorded in their own way elements of the mill that no longer exist or are in change. Pete Harvey’s photographs document elements of the mill and it’s buildings encapsulating a world of colour and texture whilst his soundscape brings its voices, sounds and memories back through interviews with former mill workers in an on going exercise to record its history. Pat Harvey has looked at the people; creating a series of portraits and canvases using archival material which reach across the generations. Des Pattison has focused on the processes and building ; using physical material ( such as fleeces and dust) to produce a number of works that both challenge and re-assure.
The exhibition will be accompanied by some of the mill’s physical archive – a wonderful opportunity to visit the past and explore the interpretation of that past in the present by these three artists.