Princess Pyramid,  2025. Materials, reclaimed polyester, cotton, silk, wool and steel pins. Size, 298 x 1230 cm 

A photograph taken by my father over 50 years ago, reworked as a large-format digital image is overlain with hand-woven tapestry in a process of reflectively reweaving my personal history. The tapestry drawings explore and seek a new and contemporary layer of understanding and meaning between a mother and daughter.

Princess Pyramid is one of a series of pieces in which I mine my working class history, thinking about and exploring familial female experience and intergenerational trauma. How are we formed biologically and psychologically, an enduring theme in my work, is especially present within this work as I look at our relationship with our biological mother, for good or bad, whether we know them or not, as being a powerful and complex force in all our lives.

Princess Pyramid is currently on show in Soft Power: lives told through textile art, at the @RWA - open until 10th August 2025

With funding from The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers and working with Edward Thompson as director I have documented almost a year of weaving in my studio. The film presents the day to day workings of an artist working with textile processes.   The film is specifically focused on recording the woven elements of the piece Princess Pyramid, the choreography of hand weaving on an upright loom, and the decisions one makes at each stage to ‘draw’ with the technique.   Use this link to view the film https://www.shellygoldsmith.com/news/soft-power-lives-told-through-textile-art