Reviving the William Liddell Collection Book
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Reviving The William Liddell Collection Patricia Belford & Barbara Dass all the images from the William Liddell Collection are available in a public archive at shuttlesandshafts.com Reviving The William Liddell Collection 1 Acknowledgements Contents This project, exhibition and book publication owes a great deal of debt and appreciation to the many people who made it possible. We would like to thank everyone who has helped and supported us in the researching, designing, writing, weaving and printing completed Preface 5 during the course of this two year Heritage Lottery funded project. We are deeply indebted to Baird McNutt who donated the plates on the closure of the Donacloney factory, research assistant Donna Campbell who provided a crucial link to the Ulster University, and to archivist Project 7 Grainne Loughran who initially cared for the plates. Many thanks to the enthusiasm and support generously given by Kathleen Curtis‑Wilson and Donald Liddell, a past Director of Ewart Liddell during the early stages of bringing the project into being. We also wish to acknowledge Exhibition 37 the crucial financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund NI and of Vision Support Services. The regional road shows were truly an inspirational and enlightening experience and we have many to thank for this! We Roadshows 43 thank Lisburn City Council for the use of their library, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum for the use of their fine Parochial Hall and the Donacloney community for the use of their Orange Hall for the road show venues. We wish to thank Sharon Adams for ensuring Logistics 61 that each road show event went smoothly, Elaine Reid and the CDDA team for digitising artefacts and recording the wonderful stories we were told and Dr Catherine O’Hara for sharing her knowledge and expertise so generously. We would also like to thank Valerie Wilson, Organisations 81 Textiles Curator at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Bruce Clark and Fiona McKelvie for their invaluable contributions to the events. One of the most rewarding aspects of this project has been the wonderfully talented and skilled creative and technical individuals Hospitality 103 we have worked with on the project. We are indebted to Paul Kelly of Form Native for the exquisite design of the exhibition and folio books, website and promotional material, Simon Mills for his wonderful photography, and Duncan Neil Design Director of William Clark and Domestic 133 Sons Ltd, for their generous encouragement, support and development of the digital printing on linen. Also, we are deeply thankful for the expertise of Ulster University research assistant Beth Milligan, weave technician Kevin Burns, embroidery and knit technician Heather Burgess and print technician Maureen Morrow. Finally we would like to thank Lisburn Museum for hosting the Shuttles & Shafts exhibition, and in particular Paul Allison and his team for their energy and willingness to see the project through to the final opening night! Thanks also to Robert Martin and Anthea McWilliams of R‑Space gallery, Lisburn for their vision to create the 2018 Northern Ireland Linen Biennale programme, which was the first showcase for this project. Published by Vision Support Services Ltd Blackburn UK 2019 ISBN: 978-1-5272-3033-0 Design Form Native formnative.com Print F.E. Burman feburman.co.uk Paper Munken Pure Smooth 400gsm cover, 150gsm inner Supported by G.F Smith gfsmith.com Reviving The William Liddell Collection 2~3 Preface In 2007 1600 photographic glass plates documenting Damask design work from the William Liddell Company, Donacloney, were donated to the Ulster University. It has been an ambition within the Belfast School of Art to uncover, conserve and publicise their legacy to the wider community, revealing the beautiful and highly skilled creative craftsmanship of the Liddell workforce. The plates were in a fragile condition, unable to be viewed easily in their existing condition. Electronically scanning the plates at a high resolution uncovered amazing images of artwork, design experimentation and highly detailed technical charts for Damask design. These images have been made available to the public via a website, an exhibition and this book. As well as preserving the past a parallel ambition by the authors was to generate new work inspired by the beauty of the plates. Having previously worked together on the Borris Lace archives, with a mutual understanding and respect of each other’s disciplines (weave and print) we felt this opportunity to further collaborate in more depth would add a contemporary focus to the beautiful uncovered archive. Looking back to look forward new work was woven and printed, a familiar pattern speaking a different language but with its roots firmly linked to the Northern Irish linen industry and the wonderful design and manufacturing heritage that was once the powerhouse of the world, in terms of global outreach. The exhibition supported by the beautifully documented books has been designed to travel, therefore spreading the knowledge of the past supported by the new textiles created by Trish Belford (printer) and Barbara Dass (weaver). Trish Belford—Senior Research Fellow Dr Barbara Dass—Professor of Design BELFAST SCHOOL OF ART, ULSTER UNIVERSITY Reviving The William Liddell Collection 4~5 Reviving The William Liddell Collection Project Documentation of the Reviving the William Liddell Damask Design’s project research and resolution TheProject themed chapter focuses on detailing the scope and content of the Reviving the William Liddell Damask Collection project. The different perspectives and approaches of Professor Barbara Dass and Senior Research Fellow Trish Belford are documented using images from their research journals, sketchbooks and distinctive workshop practices. The contextual influences of each new work are explained with reference to material and technical challenges. Reviving The William Liddell Collection 6~7 The Project Profiles The Heritage Lottery funded project ‘Reviving William Liddell’s Damask Designs’ concerns a unique collection of 1600 photographic glass plates discovered in 2007 during the dismantling of the Ewart‑Liddell factory at Donacloney, County Down. The photographs document the design and development work for Liddell’s Damask patterns. This work represents the labour of highly skilled workforce of designers, draughtsmen and women and weavers working for the company during the years 1900s to 1970s. The project team from the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University comprises of Senior Research Fellow Trish Belford and Professor Barbara Dass. The initial stages of the project focussed on the preservation of the glass plates, their digitization and classification for an open access digital archive. Public and community engagement has been the ultimate focus of the project, running three road shows at Cultra, Donacloney and Lisburn to view and photograph artefacts and listen to and record oral histories of individuals and families who have connections with the Irish linen industry. These roadshows were supported by the Professor Barbara Dass Trish Belford Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis (CDDA), Queen’s University, Belfast, design historian Dr Catherine O’Hara and Sharon Adams. Professor Barbara Dass lectures in the Belfast School of Art and Senior Research Fellow Trish Belford lectures and is an active researcher The initial research findings are disseminated through the‘Recall: Shuttles and Shafts exhibition’ , Design, Ulster Universty. Her subjects include design studies, at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. Her main areas of Linen Biennale, Lisburn Museum, September 2018—January 2019 and a series of public textile design, relationships between science and art and design, expertise are working on a wide range of collaborative projects; lectures given at several venues across the province. Belford and Dass have also partnered with with a specialized expertise in crystallography and woven spanning architecture, science, fashion and archives, subverting textile local community groups and the Lisburn Museum to run workshops that encourage participants interlaced structures. Professor Dass' most recent research has technologies for new uses and diverse audiences. Belford began her to respond to the archive using simple weaving techniques. A key aspect of the project is the focused on investigating and responding to Irish textile heritage. career originating Belford Prints Ltd in 1986, developing new print exhibiting of new contemporary textile work designed and developed by Dass and Belford in The 'Warped Destruction’ project is one such example when a techniques for the UK fashion industry: Vivienne Westwood, Zandra response to the Liddell Damask collection. collaboration with textile printer Trish Belford was formed Rhodes, Jasper Conran and Helen Storey. In 1996 Belford was awarded an The complete collection of digitised photographic plates has been arranged into four key to respond to a collection of Boris lace held by the Kavanagh Honorary fellowship at The Royal College of Art for contributions to the classifications: logistics (shipping, trains and air lines), hospitality (cafés, restaurants and hotels), family at Boris House, County Carlow. The final piece was Textile Industry. Relocating back to Northern Ireland in 2005, Belford organisations (clubs, societies and institutions) and domestic patterns (with sub-themes of floras, exhibited in the 'Materialisation: Mapping the Making exhibition’, formed a collaborative partnership