Anne Jackson’s Statement

The works I am showing here are all from my continuing project, ‘The Witchcraft Series.’ I am exploring the history of witch persecutions, specifically in Europe, and contemporary attitudes to the idea of ‘witchcraft.’ I see it as a fruitful metaphor, both for contemporary political problems and historic attitudes to women, power, science, medicine and the unknown. These works use imagery and text from original historic documents and pamphlets. I think it is no coincidence that witch-persecution flared up across Europe soon after the invention of the printing press. The quest for sensational stories to print continues to this day, with hard facts and evidence often discarded or ignored. The images in ‘Witch-Hunt: Maleficium (In Memoriam)’ come from the earliest books published about the dangerous presence of witches in society, and all the dreadful deeds they did. In ‘Certaine Wytches; Chelmsford, Essex 1566’ I used the images (supposedly) of the actual women who were hanged, Agnes and Joan Waterhouse, her daughter, trying to give those women faces as a sort of memorial. The skeleton-image in ‘Ursula Kempe; St. Osyth, Essex, 1582’ is based on a postcard of 1929; the remains were thought to be those of Ursula Kempe, executed for witchcraft, and were a sensational tourist attraction in the county of Essex, England for a number of years after they were found. In all the works in this series I intend to evoke a sense of compassion for people caught up in uncontrollable events. I hope eventually to do a large touring one-woman show of ‘The Witchcraft Series’.

Anne Jackson’s Biography

I was born and raised in the US, but moved to the UK as a young woman. By the time I finished university in 1977 I knew I wanted to be a textile artist, and went to art college in London, where I trained in woven tapestry. I evolved a hybrid technique which I have used ever since, because I like the freedom it gives me.

In recent years I have been very fortunate in having my work accepted for international exhibitions. I showed in ARTAPESTRY, and ARTAPESTRY2 which toured Europe between 2005-2010. I have recently had two of the tapestries from ‘The Witchcraft Series’ accepted for ARTAPESTRY3, which will tour Europe 2012-14. I exhibited in the American Tapestry Biennials 7 & 8, and was a guest speaker at the American Textile History Museum when ATB8 was on display there. I have a small work included in the international project, ‘Web of Europe’, on exhibition in Brussels and Budapest during 2011.

I am a member of the Steering Group of European Tapestry Forum. I have also written a number of reviews, notably for Textile: The Journal of Cloth & Culture.