Braintree has a long and rich history of textile production partly due to the network of rivers in and around the town. Whilst there is little textile related economic activity remaining, the Coulthard and Warner families responsible for the textile manufacturing have left a philanthropic legacy, a number of civic buildings and historical associations with many of the families still living in the town. The Warner Textile Archive is a nationally important collection.

Temporary works and community engagement

Katy Beinart is an exciting emerging artist whose work is based in research and community engagement. For this project Katie has held open access workshops in the Warner Textile Archive and spent time researching the works of designers and weavers. The Archive has a spectacular collection of textiles, pattern books, associated objects and printed materials. It’s a social history as well as a design catalogue.

The sculptures are based on the jacquard cards used in weaving. The cards communicate the pattern of the fabric through the holes punched in the card – rather like binary used in coding computers.  Scaled up from the proportions of the cards,  two of the cards have laser-cut designs based on the botanical designs found in the Warner Archive.  Katy describes the series as a fragmented ‘sun-dial’;  sited along the pathway at the north of the Meadow Rise, alongside the river Brain,  at different times of the day the sun will throw shadows of the patterns onto the pathway.

Commission: The grammar of ornament

Artist: Katy Beinart

Materials: corten steel

Location: London Road, Braintree

Client: Countryside Properties (UK) Ltd.