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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Gill Park
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Interwoven Histories (2018) was a curated arts and heritage exhibition which brought together and disseminated new research into the relationship between migration, work and representation in the context of the industrial history of Leeds. It focused particularly on Leeds’ textiles and clothing heritage. I achieved funding from Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England in support of this project, which was conceptualised while I was Director of Pavilion, a public-facing arts organisation based in Leeds. It developed Pavilion’s curatorial commitment to place-specific, research-driven, socially- engaged curating. The exhibition was developed in response to a knowledge gap identified by the Leeds Museums & Galleries, who knew that migrant workers had contributed significantly to the development of industry in Leeds but who had no evidence of this contribution in their public collections. The research also countered the negative representations of migration circulating in the local and national media post-Brexit vote by drawing attention to the vital contributions made by migrants to the city’s culture, work and economy in the 20th/21st centuries. Methodologically, it developed my research into the politics of archives, and particularly Stuart Hall’s concept of the Living Archive. The concept of the Living Archive was activated through the production of new oral history interviews with first generation migrant workers in the city and through participatory research strategies. The exhibition research also produced a new documentary archive of material drawn from a wide variety of collections that produced the first public archive of migrant work in the city. There was a strong emphasis in the research process on co-production and the exhibition included new work made by women asylum seekers and refugees, as well as a newly commissioned kinetic sculpture by Ryoko Akama that animated the oral histories and found industrial objects. The exhibition was presented at the Leeds Industrial Museum (10 October 2017–1 April 2018) and related research material was shared on a newly created website.
Artist(s): Park G
Publication type: Exhibition
Publication status: Published
Year: 2017
Number of Pieces: 1
Venue: Leeds Industrial Museum
Location: Leeds
Media of Output: curated exhibition
URL: https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/leeds-industrial-museum/
