Rachel Carter

Sculptor Rachel Carter works from The Garden Studio on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border. She uses the lost wax technique to create bronze works on a large scale for the garden and smaller, intimate sculptures for the home. All of this work inspired Carter to eventually create Standing In This Place.

“Throughout my professional practice, since graduating with a BA Hons in Applied Arts, I have found myself driven by process and material in sculpture. For the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing in 2020, I was commissioned to create a new series of work for the Pilgrim Roots districts. The ‘Pilgrim Woman’ sculptures combined my hand-woven work alongside community weaving, which was cast in bronze, a plus life-size pilgrim stands in the Danum Gallery, Doncaster, a smaller version on the banks of the River Trent in Gainsborough, and the third Pilgrim Sculpture is in Boston, Lincolnshire.”

“Many of my commissions are underpinned by my love of history and ancestry, and I feel honoured to be able to represent our shared and complex histories within sculpture. Looking at my own ancestry often inspires new work as I add to the long legacy of weavers, knotters and makers stretching back over 350 years of the Midlands industrial past.”

Standing In This Place is an arts and heritage project co-created by sculptor Rachel Carter & the Legacy Makers, in response to the work of the Legacy Makers group Est. 2014 by Bright Ideas Nottingham and the collaborative community-academic Global Cotton Connections project. It looks to highlight the contributions and connections between white mill workers and black enslaved women uprooted to the Americas, showing how their stories and histories are connected by cotton, sorrow, strength and resilience.

Through collaborating with the black-led community group Legacy Makers, we have been questioning who is and who should be remembered. While also being aware that less than 5% of statues in the UK portray non-royal women.

This ambitious project, exhibitions and new sculpture will give representation to the under-represented and give voice and recognition to the contributions of thousands of unnamed women connected through cotton and help to ‘challenge the 5%’.

"The title 'Standing In This Place' originated in my quest to find female ancestors. My family is deeply rooted in the Midlands, and I found my working-class ancestors mainly working in the textile and coal industries.

When trying to find places and connections to my female ancestors, I often discover that no trace remains. When looking at illiterate female ancestors, it’s hard to find any information about who they were other than that they were born, married, had children, and died.

Newspapers in the National Archives have been very useful in helping me understand the lives of some of these women. For example, I discovered one such story about a female lacemaker: aged 19, she was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at Weekday Cross, Nottingham. When I visit the Lace Market area of Nottingham, particularly the Weekday Cross, I can stand where my female ancestors once stood.

The idea behind the sculpture's title was to be able to stand where my ancestors once stood. When I began working with the black-led community group Legacy Makers, I discovered the difficulties they face when tracing ancestors of African origin. The ability to discover information about their ancestors, their roots, and the places they once stood becomes much more difficult.

When thinking about the sculpture that we are creating and its intended placement in the Broad Marsh new public park, it feels like a very fitting location as census data for the 18th & 19th centuries show many female textile workers living in the Broad Marsh and Narrow Marsh areas, you can clearly see many workers, immigrants and paupers all living side-by-side in close conditions.

The two women featured in the sculpture are our connection to our ancestors. We tread in their footsteps, and we stand in this place."

- Carter.

(Minature Shell Forms)

This miniature collection features delicate bronze sculptures that fit into the palm of your hand. They are displayed in a glass bell jar inspired by natural history collections of sea creatures that create a protective home around them.

Each miniature was hand carved directly in wax and featured intricate macramework using fine waxed cotton thread worked directly onto the sculpture's surface. Transformed into bronze using the traditional lost wax technique, they have a green patina and are polished in beeswax.

(Bronze Seeds)

In 2021, Rachel was commissioned to create a series of way markers for Redrow Homes' new housing development on the outskirts of Derby City. Durose Country Park’s circular nature walk will include four bronze seeds depicting common seeds from the countryside. The Maple, Elm, Horse Chestnut, and Sycamore seeds are woven first in wax and then cast in bronze using the traditional direct lost wax method.

Mik Godley

As someone who prefers to work with digital art rather than traditional, I can draw inspiration from Mik Godley, an artist who uses an iPad and mobile phone, rather than a traditional art school lecturer based in Nottingham. He is a painter who uses both traditional painting techniques and digital technology. This exhibition is a major presentation of Mik's ongoing body of work, 'Considering Silesia,' which began in 2003 and has been the focus of his work for almost twenty years. Mik’s work has been exhibited from San Francisco and Baltimore to Zagreb, featured in several publications, and received awards and critical acclaim.

"Considering Silesia brings together the largest and most comprehensive selection to date of paintings, drawings and prints by Nottingham-based artist Mik Godley. But rather than an unfocused retrospective, this exhibition concentrates specifically on works made as an oblique response to his own family’s connection to – and wartime displacement from – the formerly German, now mostly Polish region of Silesia, as mediated by the internet over an eighteen-year period. By Godley’s own account in the various lucid wall texts accompanying the works, it’s a project that began with the acquisition of his first computer, almost as a curious side-project, which rapidly expanded in scope, taking over much of the artist’s time and energy."

Born to an English father and German mother fewer than fifteen years after
WW2, Mik grew up in the Yorkshire coalfields. Once he started school, Mik stopped speaking German and became English. It wasn't until he got his first computer in 2003 that Mik started researching the German side of his cultural identity. The simple idea of "let's see where mum came from" prompted Mik to start researching online and documenting the things that he discovered. The once German but now Polish region of Silesia has a complex political and social history, which Mik has explored in his work for almost two decades.

This vast and wide-ranging body of work not only marks Godley's discovery and deepening understanding of his family history but also records significant changes in the increasingly detailed and immersive experiences of distant places and people that digital technology can offer. Despite having never visited his mother's homeland, Mik has documented the landscape, architecture and people of the region through images, video footage and maps found online.

As digital technologies developed to the point that large amounts of data could be easily stored and shared, and touchscreen devices became more sophisticated, Mik began moving away from traditional drawing and painting to making work on iPads and smartphones. Since around 2014, most of Mik's work has been digitally made.

"Although my drawings usually take several days to produce, iPads and smartphones can be incredibly quick - you don't have to wait for stuff to dry - and allow immediate online dissemination. You can post online or send files to be printed and exhibited anywhere in the world. The iPad and several of the apps are really easy to use; though some of the apps can be complex if needed, they can also be used very simply, which suits me. Then there's the portability. The iPad is effectively a portable studio and can do pretty much everything l need. With the Pencil stylus, it now offers professional-level precision - it's no longer finger painting."

- Godley.

(Considering Silesia, installation view, Attenborough Arts Centre, 2021.)

I prefer digital art to traditional art because creating digital art saves time. If you make a mistake on a digital drawing or painting, you can simply press the undo button to start over without making a mess trying to erase the mistake. In a digital creation, you can erase without a trace, change colours easily, and position and resize objects in seconds. Godley shows this with his work 'Lofthouse Colliery Nature Park Looking East.' From a distance, the image looks realistic with its shading and other tones on the underside of the cloud, and different colourations for the leaves on 'Near Nowowiejska 7, Wałbrzych, via Google Street View', but upon closer inspection, it is revealed that the image has neat, unkempt links and squiggles to create its textures and dimensions.

I take inspiration from Godley as viewers can see that the piece of art may look somewhat unkempt with uneven details, but from afar, it looks nice and somewhat realistic, and I have tried to make it work in my work, too.

(Above: Lofthouse Colliery Nature Park Looking East)

(Below: Near Nowowiejska 7, Wałbrzych, via Google Street View)

Kerry Dilks

Kerry Dilks has enjoyed doing art since childhood. She was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and has always lived in a large, ex-mining town, sitting at an equal distance between Derby and Nottingham in the East Midlands.

She is passionate about children's picture book illustration. "From the moment I could hold a crayon, I wanted to communicate through pictures. I still want to do this, and I am pretty certain I will never stop wanting to do it. I am very inspired by the world around me. Themes within my work centre around family, friendship, imagination, connection, joy, and creativity... all sprinkled with some magic."

- Kerry Dilks illustration.

Dilks is working to improve her craft through my own stories; 'The Greatest Cake' (2019), 'The Peg People' (2020), 'Bonnie's Ball' (2021) and 'Wooglefog' (2022). Through these books, they learn how to tell a story for children, balancing text, illustration, and design. Each project has been self-funded, and she has seen an improvement in storytelling techniques each time. 

Alongside the books, she offers commissions and has an online shop for greeting cards, calendars, and other stationery goods. She loves to work with watercolours, pencils, crayons, and pen and uses tiny digital works to enhance the final images. I like her techniques because they're how I want to work, with more accessible materials like watercolour, pencil, and digital.

"It has taken me a long time to work out where I fit in as an independent author and illustrator. I graduated from Derby Uni in January 2009, but it took me another 6 years to pluck up the courage to try and make money from things I had made. Then it was another 4 years after that before I really started to take things seriously. Why? I had a career goal to strive for a life in children's book illustration, which was why I went to Uni in the first place, BUT I had yet to learn how to go about it once Uni was over. The world of illustration felt big, and all the doors were closed to somebody who didn't feel confident in their visual voice."

- Kerry Dilks illustration, How it started versus how it's going (Things I have learned so far)

(Wild Life Study)

(Hello Sausage)

Dilks' sketchbook page on her website shows different illustrations of people, animals (as shown above), and general scenery like a street of houses and some simple furniture. Looking at her attention to detail, it is easy to tell that her love for art since she was a child has inspired her to create such pieces of art and move forward with them to the point that she can profit from them, from making books to calendars and cards. She even visits schools with younger kids to perhaps inspire them to create something similar.

Graham Elstone

"I work as an artist, creative educator and project/technical Manager regionally, Nationally and Internationally. Although much of the creative work involves technology, a mixed-medium approach is always employed, resulting in installation work, performance and a fusion of art forms. My background in theatre and performance has transferred to installation, visual arts and the creation of works using projection or moving images, often in public spaces."

- mystrikingly, Graham Elstone.

As an artist, creative educator, and project manager, his projects and creative work involve digital arts, installation, performance, and mixed media and are presented regionally, nationally, and internationally. He shows that art doesn't always have to be created on a canvas.

It also shows that something simple, in terms of design and practicality, can be classed as art; simplicity is the philosophy and practice of creating only what is necessary within a work of art. Simplicity depends significantly on the artist and what they explore or express through their medium. The artist must decide what is absolutely necessary within their work and what is I can take inspiration from Elstone in my own work, as I am a fan of minimalistic art, meaning art with little to no detail or basic shapes, as I can add my own things in the image to make it more relevant to what I am working on.

Elstone's artwork has been shown in galleries, theatres, and festivals. Much of his work is for public spaces and unusual settings, including shopfronts, disused buildings, streets, rural landscapes, and other public buildings.

Much of the artistic work requires interaction from the audience. Elstone often challenges perceptions of a medium and expands creative boundaries whilst allowing audiences to explore and participate. Recent work includes the Arts Council England-funded mixed media touring project 'The Circle Squared'.

For the creation of 'Ode to…', Graham has collaborated with long-time co-creator Thomas Hall. Previously going under the name Low Brow Trash, Graham and Thomas have exhibited several creative works across the UK. Thomas Hall is an artist whose work utilises technology in a playful and eclectic way. From model dioramas and interactive sonic pieces to screen-based or projection works, his art often requires active participation from the viewer. His public and commercial commission work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

('Ode to...')

A dynamic collaboration by artists Graham Elstone and Thomas Hall, "Ode to" is an interactive installation that celebrates "buskers." It captures the essence of 'Xylophone Man' (1932 - 2004), who graced Nottingham's streets for over fifteen years.

Elstone has used the minimalistic art style again while researching Moulton Mill.

"While researching Moulton Mill, I was reminded of a visit to an area of Derbyshire called Stanage Edge, where, when out walking, I came across what can only be described as a millstone graveyard, an area where discarded millstones cut from the hard rock had been left, never to be used.

I began to conceive ideas based on the mill's circular aspect, the millstones, cogs, and wheels throughout the building. Circular shapes exist in practical and decorative terms. It is through this route that my ideas for the commission have taken shape.

I am constructing a free-standing circular structure that is a modern version of the mill wheel—the same size as the original but conceived in perspex. It will be interactive via conductive paint and highly visual, using graphics drawn from the building's shapes, colours, and textures.

Audio will be drawn from sounds and words recorded onsite and sounds recorded in workshops. The work will be lit inside, creating a 'glow' effect.

During the research period, I have spoken to several mill volunteers and presented workshops at the local school and residential care home, Abbeygate."

"This period has allowed me to discover memories, thoughts, ideas, practical information and soundbites from various groups and ages.
The young people at the school created short lines/poems that were recorded, and the older generations in the care home utilised memories of the mill to inform and stimulate spoken word aspects that have also been recorded.

I have been working closely with mill volunteers to record specific sounds that not everyone would typically hear on a visit. Visually, the recurring circular nature of the building, the texture and pattern created on the mill stones, cogs, and wheels, the sandstone colour of the brick (very specific to the mill), the wooden steps leading to each floor, the skyline/view, patterns in the use of materials, and design elements will all impact the graphic images that will adorn the circular shape.

The finished work will have up to 14 sounds, each emphasised by a visual image or shape that denotes the touch areas."