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The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Derry spools sculpture disappoints some former ‘factory girls'
After decades of debate over how to honour the women who used to work in the city's shirt factories, Derry has produced a sculpture of three giant spools of thread cast in bronze. Ranging in height from 2 to 3.5 metres (6.5-11.5ft), the monuments loom over Harbour Square to recall an era when thousands of girls and women worked in dozens of factories that made the Northern Irish city a world leader in shirt production. However, some former workers are aghast and say the decision to use abstract symbols rather than female figures occludes their role from history. 'This gesture fell way short of what we hoped for – we feel airbrushed out of it,' Clare Moore told the BBC this week. Before the official unveiling last month, several former workers staged a protest and held a banner saying 'these factory girls say no'. There had been no proper consultation and the bronze spools did not accurately resemble the ones they used in the factories, they said. Derry city and Strabane district councils had hoped the £187,000 design would draw a line under a troubled 20-year stop-start quest to represent the city's industrial heritage with public art. The council called the artwork a 'fitting tribute' and said it had fully engaged with the former workers. Chris Wilson, the artist, said at least two years of consultations included a day-long workshop that showed a model of the artwork to dozens of former workers, who at that meeting raised no objections. 'They all seemed onboard with the idea,' Wilson told the Guardian. 'I've never worked on a project that had such an extensive and transparent process.' The sculptures are not figurative but 'almost anthropomorphic' in suggesting a group of people, with textures and shadows to evoke memory, he said. 'The factories are all gone but what came across to me, in talks with the ladies, was their memories and recollections and friendships.' Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion One of the bronze spools emits what appears to be a loose thread around the base but is in fact quotes from some former workers, Wilson said. 'I've been told that public art is like sport. Everybody has opinion and is entitled to have an opinion.'
BBC News
02-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Factory girls feel 'airbrushed' out of tribute artwork
Some former shirt factory workers in Londonderry have said they feel "airbrushed" out of an artwork created in their honour as it does not depict actual £187,000 design is based on the shape of spools of thread as used in the shirt factories of Derry, which was a world leader in shirt production for much of the last century with the factory girls the driving City and Strabane District Council said it had fully engaged with the women who worked in the factories and described it is a "fitting tribute", but some of them is just the latest controversy over plans for a permanent tribute to the shirt factory girls, which have continued for 20 years. The new artwork is part of a wider public realm scheme at Harbour Square, near the Guildhall, that was funded by the Department for the Communities (DfC). 'Lost Opportunity' Clare Moore was 15-years-old when she started working in the City told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme she felt the artwork was not representative of the level of female involvement in the industry."The factory girls just didn't make quality shirts that went around the world, they kept Derry afloat for generations."This gesture fell way short of what we hoped for – we feel airbrushed out of it."There was no meaningful consultation." Factory girls 'integral' to the process The artist Chris Wilson said he did "all he could" to ensure the factory girls' views were incorporated into his creative process, which took two Wilson said some of them told him they like the sculpture and were very "on board" with it."I think the artwork does acknowledge the skill of the factory workers," he said, adding that the sculpture was "gender neutral". Female Visibility Anya Pearson is the trustee and founder of Visible Women UK and co-ordinated the project which led to a statue of palaeontologist Mary Anning being unveiled in Lyme Regis in 2022."This was such a brilliant opportunity to give the women of Derry an actual statue that represented them," she told BBC News NI."Fifty percent of our population are women, but when you look at civic monuments, 95 per cent of them are to named men."It is a symbolic annihilation of women within our landscapes." In a statement, a spokesperson for Derry City and Strabane District Council said it had fully engaged throughout all stages of the process with local representatives from the factory girls.A council spokesperson said a date for the formal launch had yet to be confirmed, but it was hoped it would be soon. Why has it taken so long to erect the sculpture? A different factory girls sculpture was shelved back in 2018 when councillors were told it would cost more than £330,000 to that time Stormont's Department for Communities, which funded the project, said it no longer represented value for Louise Walsh had started work on the factory girls artwork in sculpture was beset by problems since being commissioned by the then Derry City was to be located at King Street in the was then changed to Harbour Square due to planning problems and the move required a redesign of the original piece that meant costs cost £85,000 of public money before the unfinished work was for this new piece of public art were announced in 2020.
