She Hangs her Coat on the Highest Pin \ 15 minutes | 2015

In May 2015 we commissioned pop reconstructivists The Aleph to collaborate with artist filmmaker Mary Stark to create a new audio/visual work in response to the Textiles Gallery at Manchester Science and Industry Museum as part of Manchester After Hours. The work was performed site specifically within the gallery, which contains original Victorian cotton spinning machinery.

She Hangs her Coat on the Highest Pin is an expanded film performance comprising three simultaneous 16mm projections of cotton mill workers, gleaned from archive footage. The artist walks from one machine to another, physically altering the visual tryptch by choosing between different pieces of celluloid and fitting them to the projectors. Connections arise between what is on screen and the means by which the film is presented; between two mechanical processes that are now largely obsolete and their relationship with the human figure. In accompaniment, live sound from The Aleph explores and re-imagines material sourced from traditional industrial folk music, tracing its resonances through to the present day, and further, into the future.