Paddy Killer, from Halifax and now based in Newcastle, has produced a giant textile postcard featuring famous faces. She has taken figures from original Bamforth cards and, in keeping with the tradition of reflecting topical issues, has added modern faces such as Posh and Becks, Ant and Dec and George Bush and Tony Blair.
The postcard sends greetings from Benidorm in Spain one of today’s most popular holiday destinations. The ink drawing on silk is finished with quilting and embroidery.
Olivia Brown, a Hebden Bridge-based artist who produces ceramic animals, has created a fun pier installation inhabited not by people but by dogs. ‘Bonemouth Pier’, an eight-foot sq work, has dogs sitting in deck chairs, dogs having a silly seaside picture taken by a dog photographer and dogs getting on with their holidaying.
Kate Eggleston-Wirtz, an American artist based in Lytham, has produced three mixed media works, which look at different aspects of the postcards. ‘Beach Ball’ is a large papier mâché beach ball covered in pictures of bottoms, bellies and boobs, a regular feature in Bamforth’s postcards.
‘Fallen Trousers’, a pair of trousers that have fallen down onto a pair of shoes, is inspired by the naughtiness of some of the postcards. And lastly, ‘Chocolate Box’, a cash box containing chocolates with black faces attached, looks at the racial stereotyping and censorship issues surrounding the postcards.
Admission to the exhibition is free.
