Mills, Machines and Memories - Textiles Installation for Mansfield Museum
Clare Taylor was lead artist for Mansfield Museum’s National Lottery Heritage Fund project.
“Mills, Machines and Memories” celebrates the legacy of Mansfield’s textile industries. It takes the form of a permanent installation of hosiery created by Clare Taylor of Bus and Bird Arts and an accompanying film by John Slemensek of Bokehgo . The town’s textile heritage is represented by various items of hosiery, in the form of socks, tights and girdles of various shapes and sizes. Each item has the names, images and history of local mills and mill workers stitched, knitted and printed on to them alongside a stitched and printed record of conversations with workers from Mansfield’s textile factories. The imagery on the hosiery and the installation itself promotes conversation from visitors of all ages and acts as a collective memory of this treasured local industry.
