LESS MEMORIES THAN FINGERS ON HANDS by Jenny Steele

Less memories than fingers on hands considers how we process and carry grief whilst moving through life, referencing and reimagining the detailed, textured and elaborate construction of a Victorian mourning cape in the Whitaker’s Collection. Victorian society notoriously wore black clothing during the strict mourning period, despite the clothing itself in many cases being highly decorative and full of life. The title refers to the artists lived experience of grief losing her mother before age 4, her limited memories of their time together and one of her own ways of processing her ongoing grief by visiting and placing floral decorations on her mother’s grave. Jenny has taken tiered textile details of the Victorian Cape, and rewoven them in woven yarn, using the vibrant colour palette of Rawtenstall’s Britain in Bloom display in Summer 2025. The vibrant colours and woven fabric in cotton and wool create a textural and comforting cape around each side of the Old Entrance.