Material Matters Artist in Residence: Jenny Handley

We’ll be following what Jenny gets up to in this blog series.

“I’m interested in the parameters of this archive. The Sunny Bank Mills archive can be considered as much larger than the space it formally occupies. On an initial visit, archive curator Rachel showed me many key parts of the archive and collection, as well as several projects she has been working on, all of which expand the boundaries of the archive in different ways. So far, I have been exploring the collection with some video documentation and basic 3D scanning methods – focusing on both the material objects, as well as the structures, archival processes and display methods at play in the space.

Out the back of the archive building is a totally different space: a woodland, overgrown mill pond and ‘dye garden’ cultivating plants and vegetation which can be used to make dyes. I am particularly interested in exploring this area as an extension of the archival collection and processes – researching and considering how this ecology contributes to the archive proper.”