Return to Sender

Just over an hour ago I took delivery of my work from the V&A. Just over a year ago I was frantically trying to finish it all ‐ prepare it for display ‐ pack it up… I remember the day I was due to deliver the last few pieces by car. Had planned an early start – had worked through the night. And that was the night it chose to be serious winter in Yorkshire. It snowed. It snowed a lot. All roads blocked. Desperate re-packing and a mad dash for the first train from Hebden. Dark, freezing cold blizzard… and frozen points. Missed the connection to London. Next train from Leeds cancelled (bad weather you know). Result ‐ two hours later, two rush hour trains full of passengers rushing for one train ‐ hey, and a change of platform thrown in for good measure! I recall I was carrying seven large packages at this stage (including ‘Mesh’ ‐ the fragile coral and invisible thread piece – rolled up in a thousand layers of wadding). It was whist negotiating the station lift system for the third time, that I quite literally bumped into Jennifer Hallam, Visual Arts Officer, Arts Council, Yorkshire and Timandra Gustafson, Director of Axis ‐ two highly professional women in arts administration. I would have wished to appear serene and calm for this impromptu meeting – the flurry of bags, boxes and bubble wrap that confronted them was anything but. ‘Support for the Arts’ moved into a different sphere as they shouldered some of the burden, bagged seats and hailed taxis at Kings Cross. For this, I profoundly thank them. And now, here sits the work again ‐ diminished in number as much of it is sold. Three pieces are immediately to embark on a new journey and a new life with browngrotta arts in Connecticut, US (www.browngrotta.com) for: Beyond Weaving: International Art Textiles, Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT. April 6 ‐ May 11 2006 (www.flinngallery.com) and SOFA, New York 2006 June 1 ‐ 4 (www.sofaexpo.com). The two installation pieces Hieroglyph and Order are still attached to the gallery walls in 101, now in the context of the ‘Penelope’s Thread’, until 9 July 2006. And yet another blank wall in that gallery awaits my work – a new tapestry for the V&A’s Contemporary Collection…