Collections Spotlight
Talented sisters:-
This month’s Collections Spotlight features two talented sisters who have worked with our Textile Team to develop work for our collections.
Kathleen Mullaniff discovered the work of Dean Castle’s Textile Team while working on an exhibition created for Morton, Young and Borland Mill, inspired by the local factory and its lace production. Since then Kathleen has created several original pieces which are on display in the ‘Reflections on Textile and Memory’ exhibition. Kathleen collaborated with artist Emma Dick and the Textile Conservation Team to create an exhibition exploring the often invisible and unacknowledged contribution made to our cultural heritage by textile workers.
Pauline Mullaniff (sister of Kathleen) is also an artist and made the fabulous contemporary copy of a baby robe on display at the Dick Institute. This was partly inspired by Ayrshire Needlework and the story of people having to give their babies away due to inability to care for them, from the 18th century onwards. Parents hoping to return to claim their infants once their fortunes improved would cut something like a piece of fabric in half and leave it with the child (Foundling Museum). If they managed to improve their circumstances they could prove parentage by the matching scrap left with the baby. Heart-breaking!
It is also a celebration of the skills and legacy of Ayrshire’s needle workers of the past, who produced this unbelievably beautiful and intricate stitch work, the unsung woman and artists, most of whom will never be known.
Connections…
- Kathleen’s piece below was included in the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Show in London in 2020.
https://se.royalacademy.org.uk/2020/artworks/kathleen-mullaniff/189
- Read more about ‘Reflections on Textile and Memory’ below
http://www.thelondongroup.com/textile-and-memory/
- Stacey Halls’ ‘The Foundling’ also references this heart-breaking tradition and is available to Reserve and Collect from our mobile service or to download from Borrowbox.
