Ebb ‘n’ Flow Exhibition at Walford Mill Crafts

The Ebb ‘n’ Flow exhibition was a spectacular story of climate change depicted in a number of lace panels created by Lace artist Jane Atkinson. The exhibition was held at the Walford Mill and Priest’s House in Wimborne.

Jane’s panels depict many different elements of nature some feel familiar such as flowers, trees and birds.

Other aspects are more unexpected such as oxygen bubbles and ice. I hadn’t really give oxygen bubbles much thought until I saw Jane’s four panels Oxygen 1 - 4 which captures the bubbles of life so beautifully.

Jane was inspired by her daily walks through nature to create many of the pieces in this exhibition, and she has used her art to give us a very personal and intimate view of the changes she has seen, and this is relatable to us all as we are all seeing similar events and the impact of climate change in our local areas and homes.

I loved how the exhibition had been assembled and how some of the pieces were hung from the ceiling so you could walk in between them and others were framed within acrylic/perspex.

The catalogue accompanying this exhibition is beautifully produced and as well as containing detailed notes for each piece, explaining the inspiration for them contains good quality photographs of each piece. I loved the ‘Healing the planet’ suggestions at the bottom of each page which were interesting and sobering. One read that “3° of global warming, raising the sea by 2m, would devastate capital cities worldwide. Coal burning must stop, but Dorset rejected a 970 MW coastal wind farm in 2015.”

Other lace artists work was also on display at the Mill including Lauran Sundin, Denise Watts and Ann Allison.