Unpicking The Gannex & I

Memorial Gestures 3- Holocaust Centre North,  Art Residency

In this body of work, I ventured beyond my own family history, learning from other survivors and their descendants. I undertook this exploration through an intensive dialogue with a Gannex coat, whose threads are saturated with history and symbolism. Gannex fabric was invented by Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor Joseph Kagan in 1951. Joseph and his wife, Margaret Kagan, survived in hiding in the Kaunas Ghetto. They came to Huddersfield in 1946 to begin a new life, founding Kagan Textiles Ltd.  At the peak of its success, Kagan Textiles Ltd employed up to 1,000 people. This included refugees and migrants from different parts of the world who were attempting to rebuild their lives in the North of England while carrying the scars of their past. My  laborious interrogations took place while listening to the words of those who worked at Kagan Textiles Ltd and in the broader Yorkshire textiles industry. This included Holocaust survivors and South Asian migrants who experienced the Partition between India and Pakistan in 1947.