RICHARD BLISS
artist/tailor
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Worker’s Thread
First shown 9th July - 10th October 2021
St Joseph's Chapel, Ushaw.
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LATEST NEWS
13th September - 15th November 2023
The Strongroom, Bishop Auckland Town Hall.
For decades, the history of working class people has been overlooked. Working class people’s possessions were rarely seen as having historic value, and therefore they were not acquired by museums or galleries at the time they were made. Even now, objects that once belonged to working class people are often just described as; ‘household cup’ or ‘working man’s shirt’. The names of the original owners overlooked or un-recorded.
In an attempt to right that wrong I have begun to create historic objects that never existed but should have been collected at the time they were made.
Worker’s Thread is a collection of these objects.
The work was originally shown at Ushaw. The Socialist Pioneers Coat can now be seen at Greenfield Arts in Newton Aycliffe and The Quarryman's to Gentleman's Waistcoat is now on permanent display next to the Library in Bishop Auckland Town Hall.