Cloth and memory

Managed to get to school on time despite having to wake the children at 8.20. They had both been awake in the night coughing so a little extra sleep this morning was beneficial to them both. I met a school friend at Salts Mill for a wander round the Cloth and Memory exhibition and lunch at Salts Diner. The exhibition is situated in the spinning room in the roof space of the mill which is normally closed to the public. The room is 168 metres long and originally contained 16,380 cap spindles for spinning yarn. The raw alpaca fleece, imported from Peru, arrived at the top of the building and was processed down through the building to emerge as finished cloth at the bottom. In its heyday it produced 18 miles of alpaca cloth a day. Today, in contrast, the spinning room is a huge long space which is peaceful and calm. 23 international artists are represented in this site specific exhibition. Some of the work we appreciated more than others, and my favourite is todays blip. It is by a Japanese artist Koji Takaki 'Koji Takaki trained as a dyer at Kyoto City University of Art but in his work he reverses the process, taking the finished cloth back to its original threads in order to reveal the structure of the textile. He uses cotton cloth, linen thread, water-soluble film and polypropylene to create installations that communicate the passing of time and explore light, shadows and air'