This was a collaborative textile work I made with fellow MA student  Deb Witney as part of the exhibition Trust: Artists respond to Morden Hall Park, an exhibition that I co-ordinated for the MA year 2 group in the Autumn Term,  2012.

An issue that arose for me from this experience was concerned with how the final work looked once hung; Initially we were able to meet to  discuss ideas and be very specific about what what we hoped to achieve.  I feel we were able to communicate  well regarding the concept and aim of the work and it is my  understanding that we we were both satisfied regarding our aims and each person's input conceptually and practically in terms of the design construction etc.

However we were only able to work together on ironing  the transfers and not in the measuring and sewing processes. This led to the two banners not  being of equal size in the end, which was disappointing for me, as I felt that this was visually jarring, especially as we had curated the to be next to each other.  However, as the hand made work could be construed as being of as 'craft' nature there is an argument for each  having its its own identity in terms of size and in the sewing style that each of us used , which also inevitably happened due to the handiwork being by different artists. 

​I feel that although the concept of the work  remains true to the spirit  of  William Morris's socialist politics  through the hand made political banners 

but  the uniformity and repetition achieved by Morris' hand blocking technique at the factory in nearby Merton Abbey Mills is missing from the work. From my own position of researching Masculinity  I think there is an interesting dissonance whereby an archetypal worker/ trades union member  being 

involved in a 'craft'  type activity, that of banner making.                                                

I would have liked to have created a performance in which the banners were paraded through the park but time constraints did not allow for this.