Story Threads: The Hidden Histories of Women
Story Threads: The Hidden Histories of Women is a multimedia arts project from artists Angela Chalmers, Mim Robson and poet Kitty Greenbrown, which combines sculptural dressmaking, textile art and poetry to reveal the forgotten stories of women and their connection with some of the north’s most at-risk village churches.
The exhibition is the culmination of months of work by artists Angela Chalmers and Mim Robson, poet Kitty Greenbrown and partners The Churches Conservation Trust as they have delved into the history of each chosen woman and delivered a series of exciting community-based arts workshops in each forgotten woman’s parish.
The workshops have been focused around poetry, cyanotype techniques and textile art, and have enabled the artists to gather the ingredients required to craft an exceptional, sculptured dress and corresponding piece of spoken word film-poetry to explore and celebrate the life of each forgotten woman.
The finished dress-sculptures powerfully conjure the forgotten women back into the churches they loved – taking up space once more – and the complementary film-poetry and photography enables audiences to emotively experience their stories.
The result is a powerful, immersive jolt which lingers long in the mind and demonstrates the valuable and breath-taking assets that are our lost village churches.