Last Tuesday my studio was very busy: a group of budding young artists aged 16-19 from East London came to visit the studio and see my work in progress for “Tangled Yarns”. They were taking part in a Creative Project run by the William Morris Gallery as part of its Young People’s Programme. The theme of this year’s project was to explore working conditions in the textile industry in Bangladesh and India and to create an artistic response to this issue.
Starting off with a visit to my studio, the young people would then spend the rest of the week experimenting with various mixed media techniques and surface treatments – using e.g. acrylic paint, transfer print, and collaging with paper and fabric – to produce their individual artwork for exhibition at the William Morris Gallery later in the year. An ambitious task to accomplish in a week, considering that the group were also learning about other aspects of the textile industry theme: (i) the Indian ethical textile company Anokhi, visited by Gallery staff earlier this year, as an example of sustainable, non-exploitative and community-rooted textile production in South Asia, and (ii) William Morris’ socialist activism which condemned, among other things, the “useless toil” in the textile factories of Victorian England.
The bad working and living conditions of 19th Century English factory workers are of course very reminiscent of the toil of today’s textile factory workers producing ‘fast fashion’ in countries like Bangladesh. Using the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster as a case study, I gave the students a very quick introduction into the characteristics of modern sweatshops and why they continue to thrive in the global textile industry. This was followed by a discussion of my own processes to find a personal artistic response to these issues, research methods, and techniques used in the work displayed in the studio. The young people also had a chance to look around the whole open plan studio space which is shared between 5 artists.
For most of them it was their first visit to a working artists’ studio, and there were lots of questions about the practicalities of being a practising artist, e.g. “is it important to have a studio?”; ” Is it better to share a space or to work on your own?” Many of them are now having to think about their further education and career options , so the question of how to choose a school and course that’s right for them was also on their minds. To those worried whether they could afford further art education at this stage I could offer that it is perfectly possible to pursue a career as an artist a bit later in life – they might have to contend with some ageism in the art world but their practice may well benefit from additional work and life experience.
Later that week I joined the group in the Gallery’s learning studio to see their work in progress. Under the expert guidance of multi-disciplinary artist Della Rees everyone had been busy developing ideas and experimenting with materials and techniques, and were now in the middle of producing their exhibition piece. It was really exciting to see the variety of responses to the theme. Many seem to have been drawn to the contrast between anonymous fashion producers in the East and glamouros Western consumers, linked by the textile supply chain yet a world apart. I can’t wait to see all the finished pieces on the wall in the Discovery Lounge of the Gallery.
