Commissioned by Timespan, Seine Net Queens is an exhibition by independent design curators Panel. The exhibition presents photographs from Timespan’s Archive alongside new works by textile designer Laura Spring, artist Bernie Reid and fashion researcher Mairi MacKenzie.

Inspired by the significant social, economic and cultural legacy of Helmdale’s herring trade, Seine Net Queens explores the trade’s 20th-century heritage through newly commissioned work by textile designer Laura Spring, made in response to a selection of photographs from Timespan’s archive. Focusing on amateur and family photographs of women who actively participated in the development of an identity for Helmsdale, these images of seine net queens and their attendants make visible the influence of the area’s sea-fishing heritage on community events and activities. When considered alongside earlier photographs of Helmsdale’s herring gutting girls, the photographs reveal the transformation of women’s lives during a period in Helmsdale when the structures of work and industry were radically redefined.

Responding to the duality of these local representations of women and place, Laura Spring has created two new textile commissions that investigate convergences between tradition and modernity, handcraft and industry, and labour and ceremony. Working in collaboration with artist Bernie Reid and fashion historian Mairi MacKenzie, Spring combines the selected archival material with new sculptural, graphic and written works. Reviewing the changing role of women through the lens of pattern, landscape, identity and uniform, Seine Net Queens creates subjective and imaginative associations between historic material and contemporary ideas, and between photographic documentation and textile design.

Seine Net Queens is commissioned by Timespan and curated by Panel. All archival material has been selected from Timespan’s Archive with the assistance of Jo Clements, Archive Development Manager, Timespan. The exhibition has been developed in collaboration with Frances Davis, Curator, Timespan.

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