The Jacquard Project by Hannah Robson

The Jacquard Project –  a unique project of collaborative work led by weaver and artist Hannah Robson.

Hannah has created a series of dynamic woven textiles using an industrial jacquard loom at Bradford College. These striking fabrics have been developed in partnership with four local artists: a sculptor, a jeweller, a weaver and a mixed-media artist.

In 2021, Hannah began working with an industrial loom at Bradford College that needed some attention. Through The Jacquard Project she has coaxed the machine back to life with the help of local weavers and loom tuners, who generously advised her, replaced parts and serviced the machine. Some of these conversations have been captured in a fascinating film created by Karanjit Panesar, intercut with footage of the action of the loom as it weaves, revealing the atmosphere of making cloth and sharing skills.

The Jacquard Project celebrates the weaving heritage of West Yorkshire through the process of creative exchange and collaboration. These new textiles have a contemporary and conceptual edge, presented as large panels on wooden frames. The cloths carry evidence of the making process – the experimentation and exploration, colour and scale variations, yarn testing, and the glitches of the loom. The exhibition aims to demystify the process of weaving and invites visitors to follow the threads as one artist’s work blends into another’s.

Hannah has collaborated with the following artists:

Alice Chandler
The collaboration with Alice started with a shared interest in bricks and bindweed as a metaphor for urban changes in the city of Leeds and connections between brick walls, woven cloth and plant life.

Anna Ray
In another collaboration with a heritage focus, Anna takes inspiration from her French Huguenot ancestors, who were silk weavers and fancy trimmings manufacturers. She references the structure of the loom and the curling of yarns, reimagining Huguenot motifs.

James Thompson
The collaboration with James involved using scanning as a method for capturing details and surfaces along a controlled, yet arbitrary route around the jacquard machine itself, which formed designs for fabrics.

Jodie Posen
Jodie created imagery based on the leftover, incidental and fortuitous patterns and marks created in studio life. The collaboration gives new form to these patterns as textile designs.

Together, the artists have produced a significant body of new work focussed on the process of weaving. The exhibition celebrates and shares the making and material culture which is in the bones of West Yorkshire.

Free entry.

You can find out more about Hannah from her website.