Parallel Threads – Entangled Ends

On view
December 8, 2024 - January 26, 2025
Reception Sunday December 8, 1-4pm

Participating Artists
Paula Becker, Robyn Borges, Kristin Crane, Anthea Davies,
Holly Emidy, Ellen Ferrin, JoAnne Kriskowski, Soraya Ghazi Lutes,
Nancy Machado, Wanda Miglus, Sandra Negron

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Textile Mill closures were a global phenomenon. Since 2019 Deborah Baronas of Rhode Island, USA, and Dr. Janis Hanley, Queensland, Australia, have been developing Parallel Threads, an immersive art installation. It explores the senescence of the textile industry in Ipswich, Australia, 1960s -1990s alongside the analogous demise of the textile industry in the United States.
 
Last year Deborah worked with artists and community members in Ipswich, creating an exhibition based on Janis’s doctoral research on the region’s textile heritage. Through contemporary art-making and interpretation of archival materials, participants explored the many facets of the heritage of textile production in their community.
 
The exhibition also addressed the relationship between the historical significance and contemporary uses of these mill buildings, to encourage heightened awareness of the importance of these mill structures and the spirits of the workers within them.
 
This was funded by a Regional Arts Development Fund Grant provided by the City of Ipswich and the Queensland government.
 
Previous Works In 2009, through grants from both RISCA and RICH Deborah created The Mill Project a visual study of the history of the textile industry in the northeast. The project focused on the workers, mostly immigrants, and their plight.
 
The Mill Project evolved into Flowers in the Factory, which brought to life the ways in which mill workers coped with their difficult circumstances, their resolve to make a better life despite the hardships inherent in the industry and how they softened the harshness of the workplace.
 
Now, Parallel Threads – Entangled Ends is coming to Rhode Island. The project is a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring an art installation, individual artworks, archival research, video, sound, and panel discussions. A series of documentary films, lectures by Scholars and Filmmakers from Australia and the USA will be held throughout the run of the show.
 
This bi-national exhibition tells stories of loss for the workers and their communities, and the impact of that loss on local culture and economies. The themes explored are: the parallel timelines between Australia and the USA; workers’ experiences; mill closures and their impact; adaption and renewal.

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