Made In Portsmouth

'Made in Portsmouth' is one in the series of works 'Connecting With Gertrude' created on a 15 month residency at Plymouth College of Art. 'Made in Portsmouth' includes a stopframe animation showing the 'unpicking' of a drawing belonging to rigger and artist John Green. The drawing is one of many that John Green produced showing how to rig HMS Victory. I came across the drawing during my research related to the historical female explorer Gertrude Benham, whose collection is held at the Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery. It was my fascination with her string objects and her mode of travel that brought me to looking at the rigging on ships. I then discovered that the machine used to create the wooden dead eyes that hold the ropes on ships was then developed to make the wooden cotton reels for sewing thread. The animation is only activated when someone uses the sewing machine of the artwork 'Made in Tibet' which is another in the same series and exhibited in the same space.