Profile

Jane Walkley is a UK based visual artist exploring the interplay between memory, place and attachment.  Responding to specific heritage sites, Jane uses traditional tapestry techniques whilst incorporating hand-cast components capable of replicating intricate detail, which she casts in her studio in Leeds. The finished work takes on a sculptural and tactile quality that maintains a physical and visual connection to Yorkshire’s industrial heritage.

Jane’s current work considers how the regeneration of Textile Mills in the North of England evoke memory and attachment. She questions whether site-specific interactions can help bridge the gap between memory and place in the absence of workplace activities that took place in these re-purposed buildings.

The site where this work is centred is Sunny Bank Mills: A place that has undergone loss, change and re materialisation. Left in situ, from when the Mill ceased textile production in 2008, are industrial pumps, looms, hardware and tools. These are objects that allude to the various workplace activities that took place in the now empty and disused spaces. It is these activities that ex-employees describe and the tools that were handled daily are given ownership and remembered in detail.

Jane begins with clay impressions of these artefacts, used in the woollen cloth production, to create moulds in which to cast jesmonite.  Materials chosen are intrinsic to the work.  It is the dust and debris from specific locations in the mill that are embedded into the casting process that allows the work to become connected to the building it is documenting.

Jane then weaves the cast artefacts into the warp on an upright loom, to produce a sculptural weave that references the heritage of the building.  This approach enables her to explore and document memory and attachment through traditional woven techniques. 

Jane makes work to be exhibited at the site she is researching and in galleries.  She provides talks and delivers workshops on request and is open to working collaboratively with other artists and performers.