.jpg) |
| Louise Baldwin - The moments that I can't recall (detail), 2026 |
Touchlines: The Delicate Boundaries of Care and Cloth is this year's 62 Group exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley. In Touchlines, we are told, "artists explore the subtle thresholds where contact is felt, withheld, or transformed. Set within the historic spaces of Sunny Bank Mills, the exhibition draws connections between textile labour, sporting cultures, and human relationships, asking how boundaries shape intimacy, care, and collective identity."
Here are some of my favourites...
Using old tickets, books, cards, packaging etc., Louise Baldwin has created a new work of layered relationships...
Hannah Lamb makes the point that "duty of care" often misses out caring for the carers. The patching and darning on this piece represents self care as the apron disintegrates. Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate who we value in society...
Helen Davies tells us that sometimes the only way to effect change is through disorder and nothing unites a community like a common goal. Her work references the 1842 General Strike where workers across Lancashire & Yorkshire unplugged the boilers in mills and factories...
Helen Banzhaf's coat shows how important it is for pattern pieces to fit together to create the final form...
In Eszter Bornemisza's piece, her people are made of map fragments and linked by a network of streets, representing human connectedness...
Helen Yardley uses the game of rugby as her inspiration with the physicality of the friction and pressure of the game echoed in her medium and representation...
And finally, with humour but also with a point, here is Lynn Setterington's Gary on the Touchline. The traditional twee subjects of needlepoint are subverted and we have instead, Gary Lineker, a pundit as famous for his humanitarian views on refugees and asylum seekers as his football commentary. The question is, will Lynn Setterington ever stitch it?
.jpg) |
| Louise Baldwin - The moments that I can't recall, 2026 Collected paper, card, and fabric elements with wood and beads; machine-stitched modules, hand stitching and glued construction |
Debbie Lyddon's The Breath of the Moon maps the contours of a day's tides. The title comes from the Venerable Bede, who noticed a connection between the moon and tides and called it the breathings of the moon. I love the title of this piece.
.jpg) |
| Debbie Lyddon - The Breath of the Moon, 2026 Linen, beeswax, linseed oil, wire, pulled threads, machine and hand stitch |
Hannah Lamb makes the point that "duty of care" often misses out caring for the carers. The patching and darning on this piece represents self care as the apron disintegrates. Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate who we value in society...
.jpg) |
| Hannah Lamb - Duty of Care II, 2022 Vintage linen apron, silk organza, applique, hand stitch, machine stitch, devore |
Helen Davies tells us that sometimes the only way to effect change is through disorder and nothing unites a community like a common goal. Her work references the 1842 General Strike where workers across Lancashire & Yorkshire unplugged the boilers in mills and factories...
.jpg) |
| Helen Davies - National Union of Had Enough of This Shite, 2026 Cotton thread, synthetic thread |
Helen Banzhaf's coat shows how important it is for pattern pieces to fit together to create the final form...
 |
| Helen Banzhaf - Salad Servers and the Odd Fish Slice, 2026 10 oz unprimed cotton canvas, assembled as a coat using various threads with stitched applique shapes |
Hazel Bruce uses an old linen roller towel as a background for patches of colour and stitch to give it a new life...
 |
| Hazel Bruce - The beginning of something new? 2025 Huckaback linen roller towel, reclaimed fabric remnants, machine stitch |
In Eszter Bornemisza's piece, her people are made of map fragments and linked by a network of streets, representing human connectedness...
 |
| Eszter Bornemisza - Icon-Maze, 2023 Organza, vintage ribbons, newsprint, tissue, threads, printing, cutting machine stitching |
Helen Yardley uses the game of rugby as her inspiration with the physicality of the friction and pressure of the game echoed in her medium and representation...
.jpg) |
| Helen Yardley - Lineout, 2026 Cut and pieced 3mm industrial wool felt, hand stitched, screen printed, machine stitched and hand painted. Mounted onto a wooden stretcher frame. |
Claire Barber's piece, part of which is shown below, made of melted shoelaces, heather and chalk represents how plastics infiltrate out environment...
.jpg) |
| Claire Barber - Sweepings (detail), 2026 Melted shoelaces, heather, chalk, stone, pins, broom, sugar palm fibres |
Hannah White's work, through electroforming, transforms something soft into something rigid and she sees this as a metaphor for building human resilience over time...
.jpg) |
| Hannah White - Woven Touchlines, 2026 Woven, hand pleated and hand stitched, Trevira and stainless-steel threads, electroformed, nickel-plated |
Mei Lock says her parents demonstrate their love through what they do rather than what they say. Here, using her parents clothes and one of her Mum's recipes, she demonstrates their actions of love and care...
.jpg) |
| Mei Lock - Love Languages, 2026 Cotton apron, denim jeans, wooden chair spindles and thread, hand stitch |
.jpg) |
| Lynn Setterington - Gary on the Touchline, 2026 Canvas work print with coloured threads |
And because everyone wants to touch everything but can't - there is a touching table...
.jpg) |
| Samples that could be examined and touched |
There were, of course, many other interesting works too. The exhibition runs until 31st May 2026, on the 3rd floor, in the 1912 Mill at Sunny Bank Mills, 83-85 Town Street, Farsley, West Yorkshire, LS28 5UJ. Open Thursday-Sunday 10am to 4pm. Go see.
There are cafes at Sunny Bank Mills, various shops and a ScrapStore. It's a great place to visit. Check opening hours before visiting.
No comments:
Post a Comment