The Bothy Garden Cottage [Industry] – POSTPONED…

POSTPONED - Due to a sudden bereavement during December 2011 this project has been postponed. The Cottage [Industry] will be rescheduled for later in 2012.

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For one week this December (12th to 19th) I will be taking my ‘occupation’ research onto the grounds of Birr Castle Demense. I will use The Bothy Garden Cottage as a residency to assimilate the cross-stitch map making begun during Occupational detour 2010.

I will have the opportunity to study the archives in Birr Castle, which I hope will allow me to trace historically accurate narratives through the places I have occupied: The Birr Union Workhouse (2008/09), Birr Fabrics/Max Birr (2010) and Birr Castle Demense (2011).

It will be a cottage industry for one, with the potential for growth.

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This project is supported by Offaly County Council Arts Office.

A visit to what was Birr Fabrics…

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I went to visit the Birr Fabrics Factory a couple of weeks back. The building is now operating as a Printing Factory. It was great to see inside – though it was a short visit, it was very informative, and has only whet my appetite more. I have visions of setting up some kind of event within the factory space, I didn’t get to see the office spaces upstairs, but the whole interior of the building seems very close to it’s appearance ever way. There are features that have not been adapted… doors, fittings, even the ‘clock-in’ system is still firmly mounted on the wall, it’s the first thing you see as you enter through the reception area. The whole building has the same kind of symmetry as the Workhouse… very clearly defined spaces, where the activity in those spaces is carefully controlled through the architecture… I get the feeling that the printing equipment fit snugly in place, echoing the same kind of repetitions & precision of the looms that would have once sounded across the purpose built factory floor.

Making the map…

I’ve just begun at last to piece the map back together. I received in the post the other day one of the fragments of the map cross-stitched, it came from one of the participants in the cross-stitch workshop which I carried out from the ‘shop’ on the 27th of August. It’s a great feeling to have someone contribute to this project in such a way, to have exchanged a small amount of cursory knowledge with someone for quite an amount of their time & effort, and for no real reason, other than the choice to do so – the freedom to make that choice, to contribute & get involved. A professor of philosophy by the name of Ted Cohen talks briefly about this choice – he suggests I think that a fundamental aspect of art is that freedom to choose… and it makes sense to me. I wonder often, ‘Why am I doing this?’ and ‘What is the purpose?’ – and perhaps Cohen has answered a little for me… there is a pursuit of freedom in this, and a desire to make free others too. Not like some kind of heroic act or anything like that, but just very small & minor things… that we forget we can take control over… like choosing to be occupied in a productive labour, rather than a passive & subservient one… choosing craft over, perhaps, gaming…

I’m working on putting the map back together – I simply am, because I choose to – I want to get a sense of the collectivity of all the individual pieces together… and to imagine then how the image of the map might abstract once again, through the act of cross-stitching. It’s a strange enterprise this – so many connections are emerging, and yet all is pretty chaotic at the moment – I’ve no sense of a clear picture, so to speak. Perhaps that’s essential, a certain blindness. Anyway, there is a network at play, or a weave… I play upon the analogy quite knowingly… I should tease that out more soon. Otherwise this will seem a bit glib. A bit pastiche…

the shop may be vacated…

Occupational detour will continue as an online project for now, I will keep updating the progress of my work & research here for now.

This research has expanded from exploring the multiple meanings of the word ‘occupation’ from within Birr Union Workhouse, and has led me to explore a particular history of local industry through one to one conversations with the people of Birr, and ex-workers of Birr Fabrics. A physical out put of this research is manifested in the creation of a cross-stitch map of Birr’s main street, as coloured by the people of Birr & visitors to the shop on the main street which I have been occupying for the past month.

Along side the complex network of stories arising from this inquiry emerges a tangible metaphor, related to fabric & skin, to technology & land, to occupation & time….

…a cottage industry begins?

Birr Fabrics Research displayed in the Window of Occupational Detour

On tuesday afternoon last, at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, just as my computer was really beginning to exploit my time, as it frequently & inexplicably does, I received a call in response to my Ad.

I had placed an Ad. on the local supervalu notice board (and also one within the FAS centre Jobs Club, one in the Paddy Powers Betting Office right opposite my own modest ‘shop’, one in Square News & one in Whelans, both news agents in the town). The Ad. basically asked:

Basically, there are about 98 squares of map to be cross-stitched, this is the objective. So I got a phone call anyway, a lady from the locality, expressing interest in the offer of work. I met with the lady, lets call her S. We met at the ‘shop’ & I explained what I was doing, exploring the meaning of the word ‘occupation’, and trying to find out more about the old Moquette Factory. S didn’t really know much about the factory, but she was aware of its existence. I introduced her to the technique of cross-stitching, and after S had coloured in 3 plots of the map, and had tried her hand at some stitching, I supplied her with all the necessary materials & a deadline of Saturday morning. She said she would see me on Thursday. This was on Tuesday.

A great feeling! I have someone on my team now, someone who is focused & means to produce, and produce well and on time. Though I’m a frightfully apologetic employer, and probably a little over anxious for employee welfare, it was a very interesting experience to hire somebody to effectively do my work for me… well, to help me with my work. In my earnestness to keep an equal footing with S I fear I was a little nervous, to the point where S, in a soothing voice urged me to ‘not be panicing’… I was panicing a little… and reasonably so, for I have no idea why I’m doing what I’m doing… I can only say that it’s really very interesting & enjoyable being in a position to speak with so many people, from such diverse walks of life, all interconnecting through this realatively small town of Birr, and around this subject of work & occupation, particularly in relation to the Fabrics factory that was.Before S left, with all her fabrics, threads & plots, she informed me that her Mother would be along with her on Thursday for a chat, and to have a go as well.

Today, Thursday, I met S & her Mother at the shop – I gave S some purple thread to finish her plots, and I inducted her Mother into the process of ‘The Making of Mainstreet’ as I’m calling it. It turns out that S’s Mother used to work in the Fabrics Factory… she worked in the Mending Room.

Birr Fabrics…

A sample of Fabric from the Factory

I’ve been hunting down information about Birr Fabrics, and the whole evolution of the factory. It was founded post WWII in an attempt to bring industry to the town of Birr, and to provide sustainable employment for the area. It began as B. Wood Textiles, became Birr Fabrics and later Max Birr & Shannon Velours. The factory was open some 35 years or so…

I spoke with a local man who worked in the factory for most of its existence, and who still works in the building (now The Midland Tribune). He informed me that some of the clients of the Factory included British Rail, Habitat, and The Sydney Opera House. All the seats in the Sydney Opera House were upholstered in Fabric from the Birr Factory. This is really fascinating to me, simply because my research into the History of Birr Union Workhouse has revealed a link between Australia and Birr already. The Orphan Girls Scheme, which was established post famine, offered 30 or so girls from Birr’s Workhouse a suitcase full of stuff & the promise of a better life if they would emigrate to Australia and help to populate the colony there (that’s it in a nutshell, but there’s definitely more to be said on this).

Post Workshop…

Had a pretty unique experience on Saturday. Anxiously prepared the shop space as much as I could, made an ‘educational aid’ to help explain how to cross stitch (for myself as much as for anyone who came along really).

Cross-stitch 'Educational Aid'.

Got into the space at about 11.45 with the workshop happening at 12, running nice & fine I was, and just at the stroke of midday two faces appeared at the window, peering in, unsure of the life within.

So I rushed to open the door & invite the visitors in, one a local, and the other, a tourist of sorts. The workshop lasted for about 3 hours as it turned out, and cross-stitch knowledge was transferred & discussed, amongst many other things: crafts, work, addiction, habits, love, anxiety, loneliness, tea, jaffa cakes, rocks, computers, repetitive strain disorder, meditation, occupation…. The two faces at the window took away with them their plot of map which they had coloured in, and their cross-stitch pattern, with the promise that they will return them to me upon completion… or at least at whatever point they feel that they have completed enough. A very fair exchange indeed, and I hope that my gladness at their participation & company for those few hours is echoed in their acquisition of the basics of cross-stitch!

T.H.'s plot of map, and transferred design on 14 count Aida.

Close up of T.H.'s plot of map coloured in & ready for transfer to Aida. The 'plot' represents a fraction of Birr's main street, from the 1850's Valuation Maps of the Town.

Cross-Stitch Workshop

I’m inviting the people of Birr (& beyond), to come along to a Cross-Stitch Workshop on main street this saturday from 12 to 2pm. There’ll be tea & biscuits provided, and it should be a nice occasion to swap some skills… I’m no expert at cross-stitching so I’ll simply be sharing my knowledge, in the hope that I’ll learn more!

For the past week visitors to the ‘shop’ have been invited to colour in segments of a map of Birr’s main street, leaving them behind on the wall. I have begun to cross stitch replica’s of these coloured-in segments. You can see my efforts in a previous post.

Cross-Stitch

I’ve started Cross stitching the map. About 40 or so people have coloured in a square each with marker, and I have begun to cross stitch their colourations. It’s fairly slow work… and it certainly has a weird effect, it’s sort of hypnotic, and pretty good if your trying to work out problems, or build connections between things. Fingers working busily, and a lot of the body is tense, and your mind is off, cruising along at whatever altitude it wishes. Meditative. I’m thinking of getting a bell, that strikes once in a while, just to refocus the mind… they use bells in meditation apparently. Anyway, here’s one I did earlier:

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