Lorna Jewitt: Acquisition and Loss

Lorna Jewitt presents a solo body of work in the Archive.

What once represented acquisition, now represents loss.

In the process of the preservation of the archive of the history of Sunny bank Mills, as much as possible is being saved. But not everything survives – although some of the old guard books, with their small neat samples of cloth, have been severely damaged over time (from damp, moth, mice etc) they have their own delicate beauty. The rusty old paperclips from thousands of hand written and filed records are being replaced, and so are not needed anymore.  The loose threads, soot and dust that have accumulated over time, now being brushed away – all of those elements, however ephemeral, are still part of the history of the place.

This body of work is a result of involvement as a volunteer with the archive, particularly in helping to clean and record the many guard books and samples of cloth. Previous work in printed and embroidered textiles has always been concerned with the idea of the lost, forgotten or anonymous; the archive has offered a chance to explore the idea of re-valuing those elements that are discarded through the process of preservation.