Thanks to an Arts Council England DYCP award I have spent some time over the last six months developing and researching a new project ‘Extraction’. It has allowed me the space to research and think through, using materials, the complex trajectories that connect industrial synthetic textile production and consumption to the climate crisis. I have learned more about the development of synthetics in the context of the British textile industry and researched labour stories in northern England and communities that made them. I interrogated the idea of extraction through my own practice including work over many years with natural materials and plant dyes. This has been a challenging process, as I have also worked through ideas of extractive practices in socially-engaged work and the politics of care.
An Archive of Extraction: Terylene (image by Phil Jackson)
As part of the award I worked with mentoring support for my curatorial practice and with artists around aspects of studio practice. I will be developing the project to explore the global scale of the mobilities and geographies of these materials over the next two years.
