The Seamstress and the Sea

Encounter the harsh reality of one sailor's life in the early twentieth century through the innovative combination of textiles and objects. Woven together they form a touching visual narrative as seen through the eyes of Royal Navy seamstress Alice Hunter grandmother of the artist Rozanne Hawksley.

The exhibition charts the emotional journey of artist and artisan, as Hawksley pieces together the story of a sailor's experience, from the making of his collar to his final resting place sewn in a canvas bag deep in the ocean.

In this creative tribute, The Seamstress and the Sea unites objects from Alice Hunter's livelihood as a piece worker who sewed sailor's collars for a living in Portsmouth after the First World War and up until the middle of the Second World War.

"I have strong memories of her at work in the little back room – great piles of cloth; the sound of her needle drawing the waxed thread through the tough cloth and a particular noise that was her thimble against the eye of her needle: of her singing sad and jolly songs of the First World War as she sewed," reminisces Rozanne Hawksley about her grandmother, Alice Hunter, for whom this installation is a tribute.