Charon

2024

Jenny Steele & Walney Weavers

Woven cotton yarn, grasses, willow, mint, flowers, rushes, ribbons, wood, Mahogany dinghy, 2.9m x 1.8m x 4m

Sited at Allotment Soup, Art Gene, Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness

Charon was the ferrywoman that carried people over water from the living to the dead in a boat to the underworld in Greek mythology. Charon is a celebratory woven sculpture that moves freely over water, highlighting the ever changing transitions, losses and fragility of life with plants from the Allotment Soup site itself woven into its floating structure. It is animal like and alive in form as it moves in the wind and on water in Walney Island. 

The boat sculpture was constructed from weaving and tassels made by Jenny Steele and Walney Weavers during workshops in July 2024 on Allotment Soup with participants from Womens Community Matters, Allotment Soup volunteers and the local homeschooling community.

Further details of the construction progress can be made on the project blog here

Charon was made as part of Rituals for Tomorrow, a research, engagement & production project by visual artist Jenny Steele that identifed sustainable ways to use weaving with everyday wild plant life, that supports our wellbeing, connection to nature and sense of belonging.

Working with partners Art Gene, Barrow, Cumbria; Rogue Artists Studios, Openshaw, Manchester and a series of individual creative practitioners, a programme of weaving and wellbeing workshops on each site will worked towards the development of two large scale artworks using local flora. Rituals for Tomorrow was supported by a Project Grant from Arts Council England.

Image Second Above: Charon with left to right, Art Gene staff Miranda Hill, Rachael Barker, Maddi Nicholson, Clinton Rimmer and Jenny Steele, August 2024

Image Above: Jenny Steele with Charon, August 2024