Harriet Rose Morley - Handicrafts Artist in Residence 2023/24
‘Hard Wear, Soft Wear’ is a new iteration of work by artist Harriet Rose Morley as part of her Handicraft Residency with LU Arts.
Unpacking the potential of feminist building and making practices ‘Hard Wear, Soft Wear’, focuses on the pedagogical value of technical spaces in UK Art Schools. Through process of research, design and the fabrication of pieces of workwear ’Hard Wear, Soft Wear’ will highlight the various skills and techniques that are being taught or have been lost since the period that the Handicraft course ran at Loughborough University.
Workwear often serves a communal purpose, with one apron or jacket accommodating multiple users, bodies and spaces. Through the means of communal use, often remnants of projects, tools, techniques, notes and drawings accumulate within the fabric serving as evidence of the inherited knowledge and skills acquired within technical learning spaces.
'Hard Wear, Soft Wear' will specifically focus and reference the history of the Handicraft Department at Loughborough Art College, and incorporate the technical knowledge and skills of current staff members. The crafted workwear will provide a new design language within functional pieces created with traces of pedagogical, and passed on knowledge in mind.
About Harriet Rose Morley
Harriet Rose Morley (b. 1994, UK; she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist, builder, and educator based in the Netherlands. Currently, she is researching feminist collective working methodologies through the lens of technical and craft-based education and labour within the arts under the framework of 'Hard Work, Soft Work'. Her maxim is to be ‘always under construction, always learning and unlearning.
Recently exhibitions include I didn’t think it would turn out this way, P/////AKT, Amsterdam (2021), You’re Never Done, Glasgow International 2021, Glasgow, UK (2021), The Headquarters PuntWG, NL (2022), UPS @ BAK (2023) and Fully Worktioning, The Balcony (2023). Since 2023 she is the Co-Director of Platform BK.
