Escape? From Rowley Regis (1980+1791)
2024
Jacquard Knit
Merino wool and acrylic
110 x 222cm
As we wade through a world often filled with negativity I have found myself seeking out the good, scooping up the love that comes through the cracks, and questioning where is its source. For me, happiness comes from my upbringing and family unit. My parents come from different walks of life and their partnership has been rendered a romantic act of fate.
My mum was the first person from her working class family to leave Rowley Regis, as far back as the 1500s according to our family tree. Divorce, lack of money and patriarchal rule gave my mothers side of the family arduous times. With thanks to free educational grants she left in 1980 for university, met my dad, went into teaching and landed a financially stable middle class lifestyle.
My dad’s side of the family come from West Yorkshire but also have traces from Rowley Regis, the last person on his side to leave was in 1791. My dad’s parents were both children of mournful serendipity: On the paternal side both had previous partners who died in tragic accidents, forcing them to come together later in life and have a child, my Grandad Jack. Whilst my dad’s mother’s parents had a son, Fred, who died very young. To compensate their grief they had another child, my grandma, and named her Freda. My grandparents met very young and still talk to this day about how it was love at first sight. They lived out the "nuclear family dream" with my grandad working his way to the top of a business and my grandma being the affectionate stay at home wife. Their romantic partnership has been the financial and emotional backbone of our family on that side. My Grandma believes she was “made for your Grandad.”
My happy go lucky mum loves to say she has simply bumbled her way through life. My financially frugal dad feels like she changed her trajectory by going to University. Through observing my families I join the dots and believe these moments, be it romantic fate or happy accidents, pulled my mum "into stability cottage.”
My parents wouldn’t be together without death and the political notion of ‘free education.’ What would life look like if this romance hadn’t occurred? Someone else would have been born and wondered the whereabouts of their source of love.
