- Venue
- Forge Mill Needle Museum
- Location
- West Midlands
Reflection on “Scour: The Hidden Landscape of Forge Mill”
It could be said that every town has its own hidden gem and special history. Artists Keith Ashford and Elizabeth Turner thought they had discovered one in The Forge Mill Needle Museum, Redditch. They embarked on an art research project to find out more and the exhibition “Scour: The Hidden Landscapes of Forge Mill” is the first outcome of that research.
Forge Mill Needle Museum is the World’s only water powered needle scouring mill and houses the national needle collection. It is set in a complex engineered medieval and post-industrial landscape on the north side of Redditch, which includes the remains of Bordesley Abbey. The exhibition artworks interpret and make new connections between the delicate needle displays, the heavy moving machinery that produced them and the water that powered this industry.
Three large works dominate the exhibition.
Floating in the central space is the sculpture “The Temper of an Angel”, a delicate structure of paper and wood. Embossed images of fish hooks taken from 19th Century catalogues in the collection play with the idea of surfaces; the paper is displaced through the embossing process just as water is by a splash. The fan like structure implies ideas of dispersal and cut outs and folds suggest refraction as hooks plunge into water, a reminder that needles and hooks from Redditch were dispersed around the world. The title is taken from a description by George Selwyn Marryat that the ideal hook should have: “The temper of an angel and the penetration of a prophet; fine enough to be invisible, and strong enough to kill a bull in a ten-acre field”
A two meter wide map dominates one wall. “All Our Labours” is a digital drawing assembled from copies of needle drawings from catalogues in the museum collection. Based on an earth work map of the Bordesley Abbey site it is reminiscent of the manufacturer’s framed needle displays upstairs in the museum. “All Our Labours” refers to the time taken to assemble the drawing, even with the benefits of modern technology making still requires time and effort.
Further into the exhibition is a sculpture laser cut at Park Farm industrial estate. “From Batchley Brook to Beoley Mill” is taken from an Ordnance Survey Map of 1883 when three mills were in operation around the Forge Mill site. The meanders of the River Arrow contrast with the straight manmade sections and the unexpected height differences of the mill ponds. The sculpture plays on light, reflections and layers. The reflective surface reminding you of winter floods where the water reflects the grey skies and flattens out the undulations of the landscape. Within the title is a geographical journey downstream; Batchley to Beoley to Park Farm, and an historical journey; brook to mill to industrial estate.
Also bringing together the land with the Collection is “Reedbed and Betweens”. This is a delicate cast and silver plated sculpture of 4 different needles with grass blades growing out of their eyes. The piece is laid out in a display cabinet above which is shown a small video of reeds moving gently in the wind on the old abbey fishponds. Two small needle packets from the collection sit either side of the sculpture like seed packets.
Alongside these landscape works are videos that investigate the relationship between the movement of the machines in the mill, the landscape and hands working.
“Fulcrum” is comprised of three passages of video comparing the steady rhythm of the mill machinery with the hands knitting, sewing and machine sewing. Each passage has a split vertical screen, hands work on one side and on the other the mill crank shaft turns; the heaving of the beams gives way to the sound of clicking needles and back again. The title refers to the change that occurred to the needle industry when mills like Forge Mill mechanised production.
“Journey on a Beam” is a horizontal split screen of machine movement over flowing water. The camera was fixed to a moving beam on the mill machinery. The moving water videos are from a series of shots taken on a walk along the River Arrow. The machine has a walking rhythm and you are on the machine, below you water moves through the landscape. The mill fixed in the landscape has become the moving object.
“Barrel Roll” has a cascade of needles reflecting light rolling in a barrel, part of the scouring process. On the right in the video a flow of water from the mill overflow catches light as it emerges from the pipe.
The effect of the exhibition is to bring the immediate landscape into the mill and reinstate the importance of the landscape to the mill and the local industry. To take the museum into the landscape the artists used stencils to spray paint needle images onto pillars under two highways over the River Arrow. Like the exhibition they are temporary, using a chalk based paint which will eventually wash out.
It is clear this is a research exhibition and many strands have been separated out from the rich source material. The artists clearly have an ambition to see how the museum can extend out into the landscape and wider environment and there is a whole area of social history they have yet to engage with. It will be exciting to see how the project develops over the year to come.
The exhibition is at Forge Mill Needle Museum, Redditch , B98 8HY. Until 3rd July 2016. It has been funded by Arts Council England and Redditch Borough Council.
