Soar Away
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, England, UK
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, England, UK
Soar Away, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 18 December 2024 - 9 February 2025 and Dewsbury Town Hall, Dewsbury, Yorkshire, 17 July 2025
This exhibition shares new works made by New Zealand based artist Deborah Rundle following a four-week residency at YSP in 2022. During her time in Yorkshire, the artist researched Ann Ellis (1843-1919) who was a textile mill worker known for her pivotal role in the Weavers Strike of 1875. Led by Ellis, the revolutionary all-women strike committee mobilised 9,000 women and men to dispute proposed wage cuts in mills across Dewsbury and Batley. Enabled by the close proximity of YSP to these areas, Rundle visited sites of interest including textile mills, the People’s History Museum history museum and collections.
Inspired by her research, Rundle created two new banners that feature excerpts from speeches made during strike committee public meetings. They are made using woollen blankets like those historically produced in the 19th century shoddy and mungo mills of West Yorkshire, where waste wool was used to create new materials. Rundle also recycles and reuses where possible. The banner tabs are made from a woollen blanket she found in a Batley charity shop, and the Soar Away text is cut from surplus woollen fabric collected from mills still operating in Yorkshire. Stand Faithful combines hand stitching and a felted moving blanket, produced in an industrial process that commingles shredded waste material, mainly wool.
Rundle has also produced a cast bronze coin as a response to discovering that Ellis died in poverty aged 76 in the Bradford Workhouse. At the time, Ellis was described as having ‘died in harness’, a term used to refer to anyone still working at the time of their death. As was common, the workhouse paid its workers with its own tokens that could only be spent in the local community. These tokens branded the users as workhouse occupants and restricted their ability to leave the immediate area. Celebrating liberation and dignity in working life, one side of Rundle’s coin depicts a running horse, which has broken free from its harness. The other side has an image of a dandelion as a symbol of resilience and renewal.
Rundle’s residency was supported by philanthropists Sigrid and Stephen Kirk, and in partnership with Te Tuhi Gallery.
This exhibition shares new works made by New Zealand based artist Deborah Rundle following a four-week residency at YSP in 2022. During her time in Yorkshire, the artist researched Ann Ellis (1843-1919) who was a textile mill worker known for her pivotal role in the Weavers Strike of 1875. Led by Ellis, the revolutionary all-women strike committee mobilised 9,000 women and men to dispute proposed wage cuts in mills across Dewsbury and Batley. Enabled by the close proximity of YSP to these areas, Rundle visited sites of interest including textile mills, the People’s History Museum history museum and collections.
Inspired by her research, Rundle created two new banners that feature excerpts from speeches made during strike committee public meetings. They are made using woollen blankets like those historically produced in the 19th century shoddy and mungo mills of West Yorkshire, where waste wool was used to create new materials. Rundle also recycles and reuses where possible. The banner tabs are made from a woollen blanket she found in a Batley charity shop, and the Soar Away text is cut from surplus woollen fabric collected from mills still operating in Yorkshire. Stand Faithful combines hand stitching and a felted moving blanket, produced in an industrial process that commingles shredded waste material, mainly wool.
Rundle has also produced a cast bronze coin as a response to discovering that Ellis died in poverty aged 76 in the Bradford Workhouse. At the time, Ellis was described as having ‘died in harness’, a term used to refer to anyone still working at the time of their death. As was common, the workhouse paid its workers with its own tokens that could only be spent in the local community. These tokens branded the users as workhouse occupants and restricted their ability to leave the immediate area. Celebrating liberation and dignity in working life, one side of Rundle’s coin depicts a running horse, which has broken free from its harness. The other side has an image of a dandelion as a symbol of resilience and renewal.
Rundle’s residency was supported by philanthropists Sigrid and Stephen Kirk, and in partnership with Te Tuhi Gallery.