We live in a world where we are increasingly disconnected from the making of things we consume, with mass production and automation replacing the intimacy of hand-made items.
I chose to wrap discarded industrial wheels in wool, and documenting the placement of the wheel each day as they were moved eventually into the river. The work was made during Rhod Art Camp 2017 at Melin Glonc - a grade II listed disused corn mill, in the village of Drefelin in Carmarthenshire, which was an area once filled with woollen mills - a development of the older cottage industries that were nurtured by local residents and local natural resources. The mills have all but gone, as we now satisfy our need for textiles via mass produced cheap imports. The wool that was once a valuable resource, is now thrown away by farmers due to lack of demand. The waterways that once fed the woollen mills are now polluted with chemicals from industrialised farming methods.
The wheel is the symbol of progress, but it is also an ancient symbol for the continual cycles of nature and the universe. By covering these industrial wheels in wool, alters their meaning and opens us to questioning what progress means.
I chose to wrap discarded industrial wheels in wool, and documenting the placement of the wheel each day as they were moved eventually into the river. The work was made during Rhod Art Camp 2017 at Melin Glonc - a grade II listed disused corn mill, in the village of Drefelin in Carmarthenshire, which was an area once filled with woollen mills - a development of the older cottage industries that were nurtured by local residents and local natural resources. The mills have all but gone, as we now satisfy our need for textiles via mass produced cheap imports. The wool that was once a valuable resource, is now thrown away by farmers due to lack of demand. The waterways that once fed the woollen mills are now polluted with chemicals from industrialised farming methods.
The wheel is the symbol of progress, but it is also an ancient symbol for the continual cycles of nature and the universe. By covering these industrial wheels in wool, alters their meaning and opens us to questioning what progress means.