Profile

Julia Burrowes recycles fabrics to create images with concealed meaning. She is fascinated by the provenance acquired by materials in their original form and by the secret personal history they retain when discarded. Combining fabrics is to collect and explore memories. Everything has significance, even when meaning might seem obscure.

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, Julia Burrowes studied painting at Bradford, Wolverhampton and the Slade Schools of Art. She began to use textiles as her medium in the early 1980s due largely to a fascination for old quilts and rag rugs and although having recently retired from her career as a teacher and lecturer in the History of Art she continues to run short courses in rag rug making at West Dean College.

Her work is concerned with the hidden history of discarded fabrics and more importantly with the memories they can evoke. Working only with recycled materials, the images she creates encompass concealed meanings, which although not immediately apparent, act as the visual equivalent of memory boxes. Julia joined the Group in 1985, has exhibited widely and her work is in many private and public collections.