.......RAG DOLL ( MATERIAL GIRL )

..........This last weekend it was the annual Barnaby festival here in Macclesfield and a lot of creativity was on show , including the opening of a new gallery - Jack Sevens Art Yard - which in a small town like Macc is only to be welcomed . The exbibition space is really good , and lets hope they attract some good work and help raise the profile of the arts in this area. 

....To my mind , however , the most creative and interesting event by far was an installation  - 'Tales From the Tower ' by Teresa Wilson in the Savage Chapel Tower , St Michael's Church .

For a start , the church is just around the corner from us here in the centre of Macc and I pass it most days , but I had never noticed the medieval tower just off to the side ; a fascinating space in its own right with a small footprint spread over three floors. The art work consisted of four discrete but interrelated installations on each level of the tower. " She uses puppets made from rags and recycled materials to suggest stories to the viewer and to explore emotional , challenging and sometimes uncomfortable subject matter in a gentle and playful way. The work is about the transmutation of undigested experience ; timelessness , darkness and enchantment "

To my mind though , to categorise them as rag-dolls diminishes them somewhat ; in their thin, gaunt , reduced state their more direct references to me are as mummies , their memories and remains enbalmed in cloth now reduced to rags  .......quite dark and very impressive .

Teresa's website is at http://www.teresawilson.co.uk/ and she is one of the Vernon Mill Artists based in Vernon Mill in Stockport ; on a day when the sky went dark and the heavens opened it was quite a dramatic experience.