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Sarah-Joy Ford

Todmorden
Dr Sarah-Joy Ford is an artist and independent scholar working with textiles to explore the complexities and pleasures of lesbian and queer communities, histories and archives.

Dr Sarah-Joy Ford is an artist and independent scholar working with textiles to explore the complexities and pleasures of queer communities, histories and archives. Her practice sits at intersection of digital and traditional: using strategies of quilting, digital embroidery, digital print and hand embellishment. Her deep material investment in surface pattern design, and embellishment is part of my femme-ethical methodology that prioritises softness, emotionality, and aesthetic preoccupation. 

 

She was the recipient of an NWDTCP award for her PhD research examining quilting as an affective methodology for re-visioning British lesbian archive, at Manchester School of Art.  Solo exhibitions include RABBIT at Bury Art Museum 2024, HARE at Bobinska Brownlee Gallery 2023 (London), Looking for Lesbians at ONE Gallery 2022 (Los Angeles) and Beloved at Plas Newydd Historic House and Gardens 2022 (Llangollen). Her work has rbeen commissioned for A Tall Order at Touchstones Rochdale (2023); Un-Defining Queer at The Whitworth Manchester (2022) and Manchester Science Park, Bruntwood (2022-2023). Her work is held in numerous collections including The Whitworth, Manchester; The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, Soho House Global Art Collection and The ONE Archives, Los Angles. Her writing has been published in numerous publications including Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, MAI: Feminist Visual Cultures, SOANYWAY and The Journal of Lesbian Studies. She is a member of Proximity collective and on the editorial board of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

 

Her most recent solo show RABBIT runs from 18th May – 17th August 2024 at Bury Art Museum. 

 

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