Standing In This Place with Rachel Carter

Join artist Rachel Carter as she shares her sculptural journey researching her ancestors working in the Darley Abbey cotton Mill of the early 1800’s and the textile industries links to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and how this developed into a new sculpture highlighting the contributions of women to the wealth of the industrial Midlands.

Hear some of the poetry written as part of the Standing In This Place project that asked why only 5% of public statues in the UK represent women and even fewer women of colour.

About Rachel Carter

Rachel Carter works from The Garden Studio on the Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire border, creating large scale sculpture for the garden and smaller intimate sculptures for the home using the lost wax technique to create bronze works.

Throughout her professional practice, since graduating with a BA Hons in Applied Arts, Rachel has found herself driven by process and material in sculpture. For the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing in 2020 she was commissioned to create a new series of work for the Pilgrim Roots districts. The ‘Pilgrim Woman’ sculptures combined hand-woven work alongside community weaving, which was cast in bronze, a plus life size pilgrim which stands in the Danum Gallery, Doncaster, a smaller version stands on the banks of the River Trent in Gainsborough and a third Pilgrim Sculpture is being created for Boston due to be installed in Spring 2022.

Repetition features heavily in Rachel’s work, this could be the process of applying multiple identical lengths of material onto a frame to create surface pattern, or in the creation of an installation made from many identical forms. Hand processes such as weaving, knotting & tying, crochet and even corn dollie weaves have allowed that repetition to flourish to a point where her hands can almost sculpt independently of thought.

Many of Rachels’ commissions are underpinned by her love of history and ancestry, and she feel honoured to be able to represent our shared and complex histories within sculpture. Looking at her own ancestry often provides inspiration for new work as she adds to the long legacy of weavers, knotters and makers that stretch back over 350 years of the Midlands industrial past.

Produced by Derby Museums as part of Derby Book Festival.

Booking essential. Limited places.

Suitable for 18+.

Image © Rachel Carter Sculpture.