Pillars of the Community I

Screenprint and acrylic on worsted fabric made in Yorkshire. This work is inspired by Bradford's historic community of textile merchants, who built Bradford's ‘Little Germany’ and contributed much to Bradford’s commercial success and cultural life. This well-established community all but disappeared during the first World War. Anti-German sentiment that had emerged in the UK before the war went into overdrive, fueled by the right-wing press; even Non-naturalised Germans were required to register with the police, and all male adults were interned in ‘concentration camps’. ‘Pillars of the community’ quickly became ‘enemies in our midst’; this reminded me of the recent surge in hostility towards EU immigrants, which has left long-term EU residents in shock. The works layer • historic Bradford buildings connected to the wool industry: the Wool Exchange, a cloth warehouse in Little Germany, and St George’s Hall. • famous Bradford Germans: cloth merchants Jacob Behrens and Jacob Moser, bacteriologist Dr Eurich who invented a method to disinfect wool against anthrax, and the composer Friedrich Delius. Eurich and Delius were sons of cloth merchants. • 4 young Bradford men, sons of German cloth merchants, who died for Britain in WW1. • anti-immigrant quotes from British newspapers (mainly Daily Mail) from 1907-1915 and the mid-2000s onwards. • a quote from Bradford native JB Priestley pondering the loss of the city’s German community. • Quotes from individuals caught up in the respective xenophobic climates: A German man who fought in the British army during WW1 and then got arrested for not registering as an ‘enemy alien’, and two French women who have been long-term residents in the UK and now worry about their future.