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| Judge Joe Hesketh Oil on Canvas 2011 |
If you want to read more about the story of the Pendle Witches click here and if you want to know more about the Pendle Witches anniversary events click here or to see our upcoming Pendle Witch themed exhibitions click here
Here is our artist; Joe Hesketh.
Joe explained she had always been fascinated by the Pendle Witches, since she was a child. The fact that it was the 400 year anniversary spurred her on and she thought "it was time I really looked into it". Joe's work is usually about her life in Pendle as a Nothern female living in this time, so it fit well together to look at the lives of other women living in a different era. Joe explained that she knew the story well, but not all the details and once she started researching the story in more detail she was taken by the idea of how these women were jugded. Joe says "people judge me instantly, like that (clicks fingers), and it seemed to be the same with the witches, that people judged them to be different. I'm not saying that people don't accept me, but that people like to put other people in boxes, to try and know what people are about". Joe and I agree here, you never know what goes on inside people and you can't judge a book by it's cover. I seem to have typed the word judge a lot here and there is a painting of that name in the exhibition. Judge was inspired by Roger Nowell, who Joe thinks probably wanted to be famous and that it was Rogers involvement that really sealed the witches doom.
Joe went on to discuss how she imagined people to be more superstitious and frightened 400 years ago, none more so than King James I who strongly believed in witches and believed them to be a threat. Perjury was inspired by the King and if you look at the close up below, you can see a crown.
To produce this body of work, Joe was able to secure an Arts Council Grant and to start the work she decided to walk and camp the route the witches would have taken from Pendle to Lancaster. It took 4 days to do this and although no one is exactly sure which route the witches would have taken, Joe worked with local historian John Clayton to plan the most likely route. This followed the old Roman Road through the Trough of Bowland which was there in 1612 and is still there now. Joe said "I wanted to really feel the story, not just read the books, which I did. So I thought, why not just walk the path and follow in their footsteps." Although we did discuss here whether or not the witches walked, were taken in a carriage or prison wagon or were dragged. Joe thinks they were probably dragged. Which is a horrific thought.
Back to the journey; Joe was expecting to get some drawings and hoped the 4 days would affect her. She was not fully prepared for the way it did affect her, it was a much more powerful experience than expected, particularly the long days walking on her own.
"One day it felt like they were following me, it was eerie, I looked back at one point and for a split second I saw four women sat down wearing dark clothes. The next second it was just some bushes".
I found this a really interesting statement, Joe was following the route of the witches, if anything I would have expected her to be behind the witches, yet here she was thinking they were walking behind her.
She also stopped for a cheese sandwich at the twisted trees by the river in the Trough of Bowland and these trees are more than 400 years old. She spent time thinking if the witches stopped here or if they had any breaks on the journey at all. Her journal describes "I've been thinking about the witches a lot, it's hard to get in your head this is the actual road they were taken on, tarmac for one, puts it out of place, but look around and see the twisted trees and bubbling bank of the trickling river and you can kind of put yourself right in it."
Joe managed to choose a really grim 4 days to do this walk, with lots of rain. She kept a notebook and scribbled down her feelings and impressions. One entry states; "I wanted it to be grim, but not this grim". A photo taken at the time shows Joe soaked through and unable to smile any more after spending a day walking in the rain, stopping regularly to pour water from her boots. But she smiles today "At least I wasn't hung at the end".
At the start of the walk, Joe had an idea what her work would be like, but she says they ended up very different, with much more detail and information. She says this is because she could feel that time, feel how much more basic life was and how bare the area was, and how grim it must have felt.
So here is a look at the work, including some of the close ups Joe mentioned to me.
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| Tits up Joe Hesketh Oil on Canvas 2011 |
From this angle, mouth turned down
From this angle, growling
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| Untitled Joe Hesketh Drawing 2011 |
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| Wicca Joe Hesketh Oil on Canvas 2011 |
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| Untitled Joe Hesketh Drawing 2011 |
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| Perjury Joe Hesketh Oil on Canvas 2011 |
Here is the crown
Can you see a lobster?
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| Untitled Joe Hesketh Drawing 2011 |
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| Drunk Joe Hesketh Oil on Canvas 2011 |
I am particularly drawn to crosses, hence the next photo...
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| Untitled Joe Hesketh Drawing 2011 |
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| Untitled Joe Hesketh Drawing 2011 |
I hope you enjoyed that folks? It's certainly a powerful exhibition, so for today I'm just telling the story of this work. Soon, I'll post more about Joe herself.
Ta Ra
Kirsty
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