Re-Positional States
Bradford (UK), 2023
Film

Film exploring the experiences of early post-war Italian women textile workers who relocated to the UK on government recruitment schemes to fill labour shortages in textile mills in Bradford and Leeds in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The work references textile manufacturing processes in its production and includes rotating video footage of Saltaire United Reformed Church, built in the Italianate architectural style as part of Sir Titus Salt's 'model' textile village in Saltaire, and digital scanned imagery recorded from the base of the relocated 'Memorial to Queen Victoria' statue in Woodhouse Moor, Leeds.

The film uses archive interviews with Italian textile workers conducted in 1984 by the Bradford Heritage Recording Unit, held at the Bradford Archives, and by the BBC in 2019 following the EU Referendum. Re-Positional States is part of the Bradford District Museums and Galleries Collection.


Project supported by Arts Council England Developing your Creative Practice