I worked with The Whitworth Gallery Manchester to create a bespoke line of premium upcycled garments celebrating ‘Un Fair Ground’ – Delaine Le Bas’ first solo show in Manchester. The image I came up with was a graphic reinterpretation of one of Delaine’s iconic paintings of Snow White, with her signature on the reverse.
Upcycling is a perilous business I think; I always want my products to stand for themselves, regardless of how devilish clever or resourceful I think I’ve been in reworking the original materials. Also let’s face it; a great deal of what’s made under the banner of upcycling is bloody awful, suitable only for a quick camera sweep on a daytime television (don’t look too close). What I mean is: the reuse of materials doesn’t in and of itself make your work interesting or successful, but that doesn’t mean I won’t wang on about that process or that there aren’t meaningful or narrative discoveries to be made when you rework a material or try to elevate it.
For my collaboration with the Turner Prize nominated Delaine Le Bas I sourced good quality blanks, laundered them with soda ash (I use it to make avocado ink, but it’s also brilliant at enervating vintage textiles) and repaired small flaws using a graphic cross-stitch motif which was echoed on the new garment labels I had printed. I also used paper stencils to screen print the image (great because you use no solvents). This did mean hand cutting a new stencil each time which – joyful though I find paper – does take ages. But it also gives the print a beautiful, impossible-to-AI jerkiness, where you can still see the hand of the maker.
Workshops
During its run, I was also asked to co-host two days of textile upcycling workshops with Delaine. Members of the public and students from Manchester School of Art spent the afternoon in The Whitworth Gallery’s beautiful Clore Studio and garden, messing about with appliques, screen printed motifs and drawing with some of my oak tree ink. All photographs by David Oates.
