walking twelve miles a day
The text is taken from Jacqui Stearn’s poem ‘walking twelve miles a day’ written in response to the darning team at WSP in Stroud in 2019.
Walking twelve miles a day,
Back and forth, back and forth,
A tug, a snip, the light behind reveals
The flaws of yarn, where to darn,
Which ends to snip in the yet
To be green or yellow napped cloth.
Walking twelve miles a day
No radio, just small conversation,
Laboured concentration on the cloth
Perfecting the nap for the balls to glide,
For champions to slide a shot
Past their opponent, aced in tennis play
Walking twelve miles a day
walking and checking
2021 Digitally printed film still on cotton with embroidery
Dimensions: 24 x 41cms
The film celebrates the unsung heroes in textile manufacturing and makes visible hand skills still necessary to manufacture of high quality cloth. The women constantly hunt for flaws and this is reflected within the filming process and editing process.
The uncertainty and infinite possibility of outcome using digital film processes is compromised by my actions during the process of gathering material.
The conversations and engagement with process lead to errors in gathering material as the two processes being carried out simultaneously lead to gaps in the information captured both of film and sound, in turn echoing the unpredictable flaws in the cloth being checked due to engagement with conversations and positioning of the camera and sound recorder while respecting the working environment.
