Heather Connelly                                                      homepage  about   current   projects  exhibitions  research  contact 
Action Research Projects
Home Made
Aug 08 - Jan 09

image of 2 women through green sari  2 pairs of hands making felt  group of women around table at vine centre taken through fabric  blurred hand in motion making orange & green felt   image of womens hand sewing taken through red fabric
'Home Makers' a series of photographs by Heather Connelly taken during the workshops - to document the value of the process of making the work and to capture the amience and camaraderie of the sessions.
Further Details
The soundscape was created from a series of conversations with the women and the volunteers that ran the group. The womens aims, ambitions and experiences can be heard inside the tent embellished with the women's handiwork. The form of the installation derived from discussions with the women about how they would like the audience to interact with their work and is loosely based upon the Eritrean coffee drinking ceremony.  I also created a set of postcards feature work and quotations by the women to accompany the installation and to reflect the ‘process’ and relationships built over the ten weeks.

The project/workshops were commisioned as part of ‘A Sense of Belonging’ - a group exhibition at the Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University,
Jan 2009 (alongside projects from across the region). The exhibition formed one strand of activity and is part of a larger project ‘Beyond Borders: making connections’ funded by the arts and humanities research council (AHRC) knowledge transfer scheme, which brings together academics, policy makers, arts organisations, refugees and asylum seekers to stimulate dialogue and gain insight into the processes of integration that lead to a ‘sense of belonging’ and seeks to inform public policy. See www.makingtheconnections.info for further information.
decorated felt squares decorated with images by women with glitter pens   Home Made tent/gezeebo installation- featuring colourful silk drapes and cushions  cushions made by Rosie Hobbs using the womens textile work - handmade felt hands and feet embroidered with beads  installation of tent at bonnington gallery with members of the public reading and listening to the sound work  brightly coloured silk swathes pinned inside tent
Details of "Home Made' installation and textile work that adorns it.

Listen to sound samples  

   

   
   

Touring
Home Made has also been installed at 'Stories of Migration: Theories, Research and Everyday Life' - a postgraduate conference at the University of Nottingham (School of Sociology & Social Policy) June 2009 and will be seen at the GLOCAL IMAGINARIES WRITING / MIGRATION / PLACE international conference at The Whitworth Museum and Art Gallery Sept 2009.  http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/movingmanchester/glocal_imaginaries/index.htm
  
image of printed envelope - featuring pencil outline of world map and torn post it notes with womens names indicating their country of birth
Design for hand folded envelope - to enclose postcards and information - featuring world map with post it notes of some of the women's names who were involved in the project and where they come from.


                                 
   pink peacock image drawn on felt by women   a pair of embroidered handmade green felt feet 2d image of a church made from buttons a pair of embroidered purple felt hands  2d image of flower made from buttons
Motifs made by the women during the workshops, using handmade felt, embroidery, buttons etc.


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