Rebecca Chesney talks about her new work “Pine an Fret”

Astley Cheetham Art Gallery's ongoing interactive exhibition showcases Stalybridge's past, present, future. Artist Rebecca Chesney takes us through the journey...

A new exhibition focusing on the working-class people of Stalybridge from the past and present has opened up at Astley Cheetham Art Gallery for a three-month run. The Reporter caught up with Rebecca Chesney to talk more about her latest project. 

"One of the first things that sparked the project was a trip to Stalybridge," Rebecca said, "I saw a plaque about the general strike and its origins in Stalybridge. I read some of Samuel Laycock's poems about the working conditions in cotton mills in the 1860s as well and thought his words resonated today." 

The project Rebecca speaks about is her latest work entitled "Pine an' Fret", a name that originated from the Samuel Laycock poem "It's Hard To Ceawr I' Th Chimney Nook."       

Rebecca made this a community engagement project and involved locals living today, talking about their concerns and then seeing what people still have in common with the working-class people of the past. 

Expanding on the content of the posters, Rebecca said:

 "Three of the posters have lines from Laycock poems, and four have lines from people in Stalybridge written this year. We held creative writing workshops where anyone from the public could have a go at writing their own poems – and I selected the ones to go on the posters." 

The research and outreach have taken place over the last six months, in which Rebecca has been able to meet many people from all walks of life in the Stalybridge community. The community have enabled her to be able to create sets of provocative and striking posters, which have captured the hopes and worries of the locals. These messages of modern times are then put them alongside the emotions of people found in Laycock's poetry. 

Besides the messages, the posters themselves also look like they are from the past. This is down to the production techniques that Rebecca used, which she explained to us. "I used a couple of different methods to create them. First, I borrowed wooden letterpress sets to print alphabets in different fonts, then I scanned them and used them digitally to create the layout. The final posters were Riso printed." 

Riso printing is a technique that involves digital screen printing using special paper known as risograph paper. The results of the technique are bright and vivid colours alongside bold textures.  

Rebecca is no newbie to the poster-creating scene, having previously created exhibitions for Manchester International Festival a few years ago, using the riso printing technique again to create vivid posters. 

To see more from Rebecca Chesney, head to Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Stalybridge or visit www.rebeccachesney.com to view her previous and upcoming projects.