Transform and Escape the Dogs
Disenfranchisement creates dissonance.
Dissonance inspires gatherings.
Gatherings initiate transformation.
Jamie Holman’s commission for the British Textiles Biennial begins in the archives of The Harris Museum, Preston and Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery; and ends in a web of social history, and reflection on a human desire to transform.
Investigating the ‘Politics of Cloth’ his research uncovered hand painted, rich silk, trade union banners paraded by Britain’s workers, leading him to commemorations of mass gatherings, and the social, spiritual, cultural and political transformations they generated.
Book-ended by two eras; the industrial boom of 18th Century: Blackburn’s cotton Industry and the era of decline two centuries later, which provided an opportunity for a new counter culture to occupy these empty spaces for illegally sited parties known as ‘Raves.’
Like the stories found in them, these artworks are a result of shared experiences and collaborative working.
A commemoration, and documentation of the lost stories from the North’s everyday people who did extraordinary things - together; often against the odds and against all expectations of those who employed, governed and ruled them. From poetry to painting, Pendle witches to Pendle house and the birth of Acid House. Our people can’t be kept down.
Commissioned by British Textile Biennial
Exit, 2019
The Devil is in the Dance, 2019
Transform, 2019
Live the Dream, 2019
Pharmacy, 2019
I Was a Hare and as a Hare I Ran, 2019
Sunday Morning, 2019
White Label Vinyl Listening Booth, 2019
Commissioned for the british textile biennial in response to the theme ‘the politics of cloth’
Transform and escape the Dogs is a series of works by artist Jamie Holman that was on display at the British Textile Biennial 2019, celebrating a history of radical gatherings where the working class youth of the north resisted, rejected, and finally reclaimed the spaces that cotton made and then abandoned.
From Malkin tower to Mill Hill; a defiant history of witches, hand loom poets, blacksmith painters, football casuals, and pioneer film makers, challenging accepted notions of textiles heritage, and of those people and events that have shaped us.
These works propose a counter narrative of creativity, rebellion, and magic; exploring the real Industrial Revolution, a revolution of the soul that seeks to remind us: ‘when we gather, we become powerful. We cannot be kept down.
