Mid Pennine Arts art+people+places

Celebrating the Weavers’ Triangle brought together three UK contemporary artists who used a range of approaches to record the industrial legacy left by Burnley’s textile industry. Rebecca Chesney, Helen de Main and Chris Twigg created a current visual record of Burnley’s heritage gem that marks the area’s existing condition prior to any future regeneration.

Helen de Main focused on boarded up or closed off areas of the Weavers’ Triangle in the series of works Unity is Strength created images, that when isolated, verge upon the abstract. It was the structure of the materials through which formal links between the images were created. Using a saturated colour palette, these potentially mundane images were imbued with a sense of unreality and optimism. For further information on Helen please visit her website.

Rebecca Chesney collected plant specimens and conducted surveys along the Weavers' Triangle on the 22 and 24 October 2008 in order to try and document the variety of species within the site. Over 70 species were identified, this number would increase if further surveys were taken at different times of the year. Each pressed specimen was displayed labelled stating when it was collected and stamped with the date it was mounted. For further information on Rebecca please visit her website.

Chris Twigg’s work considered the image of the urban and industrial environment, which appears at once permanent and in a state of flux. A notion of uncertainty and ongoing change is manifest in disused buildings that themselves once had permanence and validity within the system of life, work, order and control. These buildings stand as testimony to the memory of their own purpose; a symbol now for hope and change.