Ropewalkers brings together new work by artists Jo Ball, Andy Parker and Simon Whetham made in response to the architecture, history and materials of Dawe’s Twineworks Museum and social history project.
A monument to working class history Dawe’s is thought to be the only rural twineworks remaining in England with all its machinery, the last example of what was the most important industry in South Somerset for over 500 years.
By placing art at the heart of the museum visitors are encouraged to see the past with new eyes, revealing narratives that are hidden in the machinery, archives and soil surrounding the Twineworks.
The exhibition takes place across two venues, OSR Project Space and Dawe’s Twineworks (West Coker), and includes an immersive sound work by Simon Whetham entitled Trace Evidence, performance and sculpture by Andy Parker that weaves together personal histories with that of William Dampier and the Twineworks, and Jo Ball’s project Patches of Blue Sky that re-visits the tradition of growing flax to make linen twine.
