Woven Into Place – HUG

With the challenge of delivering high impact, covid safe and environmentally aware installations, and as part of Heart Your Town, artists Adrian McCourt and Annabel Riley were commissioned for the ‘ WOVEN into Place’  – ‘HUG” project . They worked with Cleckheaton, Dewsbury and Heckmondwike communities to collect thoughts and words about connection and the longing to reconnect with each other during the restrictive times of the covid pandemic.

The communities expressed themselves using emotive words, such as hope, cuddles, love and hugging to represent what they missed and longed for. Local residents used fabric off-cuts, donated by local businesses, to weave the words through fencing in Cleckheaton Memorial park and bus station, Heckmondwike Algernon Firth park and Dewsbury Crow Nest park. It became  a visual embrace displaying the thoughts of local people. 

Rooting textiles at the heart of community recovery and celebration, this cathartic intervention acknowledged the collective pain experienced, recognised the resilience displayed, and ultimately rewarded Kirklees with an embrace. The Kirklees ‘HUGS’ became the ultimate textile representation of a unique event in our lifetimes, combining pride, psychogeography and the craving for something as simple and profound as a hug.

As well as the large public art displays, HUG kits were given out to schools and community groups to weave their own meaningful ’ hug’ words into places important to them.