Jann Haworth: Close Up

This was the first chance in the UK to see American Pop artist Jann Haworth (b.1942) and Liberty Blake’s (b.1968) mural, Work in Progress. The 28ft mural was the result of a collaborative community project and celebrates women who were catalysts for change in the arts, sciences and social activism. Featuring over 100 women spanning over 3000 years, it raised the question of how many of these different lives and endeavours have become unjustly marginalised or forgotten throughout history.

Alongside the mural, you could have seen Haworth’s sculptural and wall-based works dating from the 1960s to the present day. Haworth challenged the conventional perception on form and appropriate subject matter for sculpture, recreating instead the elderly, doughnuts, newspaper comic sections, charm bracelets and cowboys – all cast in cloth. Her life-size and large-scale works directly engage the viewer in a dialogue with her work. The exhibition went on to explore female creativity through Haworth’s own selection of works from the Gallery’s collection.