Curated Selection

Reliquary for a Mill Worker III, 2018 by Josie Beszant

A full-sized apron constructed from paper and thread, collaged with details of patterns and textile accoutrements. Based on the archives at Sunnybank Mills near Leeds

The Power of the Union, 2018 by Alke Schmidt

Oil on block-printed Indian cotton

104 x 167 cm

Workers, 2012 by Andrew Rafferty

Following the work at City Hall, I was given a similar commission at the nearby development of the Ernst and Young European Headquarters. I tackled the project in a completely different way, focusing on the people who were actually involved in the day-to-day graft of construction. At the end of the work, Ernst and Young bought 113 silverprint images which are on permanent display over some six floors for the workforce to enjoy.

The Post, 2021 by Ricky Romain

I was commissioned by our postman, Ian, to paint a piece about the Postman/women, as they are key workers. 'The Post' oil and Indian ink on gesso on canvas

124cm x 74cm

Broccoli Tots, July to October, 2018 by Fliss Quick

‘Housewifery is continual, repetitious, ephemeral, and the results are fleeting and usually uncelebrated’. Through preserving and displaying the incidental outcomes of housewifery, I look to make these past events tangible, asking the viewer to mentally reconstruct the actions which led to these traces, figuratively and physically framing the evidence of domestic labour. This work is part of the Home-Maker series and was originally shown in the self-titled exhibition within our own home, amongst the chaos and debris of everyday family life: Works that seek to situate the artist in relation to mother, wife, and homemaker.

The Workforce Symphony, 2017 by Lucy Stevens

Working in collaboration with g8 artists to respond to the theme of Leicester’s industry, both past and present. The new commissioned artworks have been made in response to collections of historic objects and museum artefacts as part of a group exhibition in the new galleries, at Attenborough Arts Centre, 9 June – 20 August 2017. The new soundscape The Workforce Symphony has been produced using a mixture of field recordings, interviews and oral history archives to produce a narrative that explores the rhythmic sounds created by industrial machinery, the patterns of voices recounting stories and the natural environment. The composition is layered with sound recordings gathered from factories, workshops, vintage industrial machinery, parks, wildlife and interviews with retired industrialists and manipulated to mimic the sounds of industry or stretched, repeated and reversed to produce new and unexpected audio samples. The exhibition is supported by Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester and Leicestershire & Museum Services, Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and Leicester City Council. With thanks to Abbey Pumping Station, Leicestershire Industrial History Society, Men in Sheds at Age UK Leicestershire and Rutland, Cooke Optics Limited, Abbey Park and the East Midlands Oral History Archive, University of Leicester.

Whitechapel Founder II, 2021 by Jane Stobart

One of my post Whitechapel Bell Foundry (closed in 2017) prints, using lift ground, spit bite and aquatint. Created from an old drawing that was made at the Foundry when I was artist-in-residence there.