Art meets heritage as North Tawton gallery installation begins to take shape

Work is under way this week on a large-scale textile installation that will soon cover the front of a gallery in North Tawton.

The Smocked Building Project is being created by New York-based artist Annie Coggan, with support by Red Mud Arts, and will see the façade of Ruth Smith Gallery transformed using a traditional textile technique known as smocking.

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Ms Coggan began work on the piece at North Tawton Community Centre on Saturday 11 January and will continue making the installation there until Wednesday 14 January. 

The finished artwork is due to be installed on the gallery building on Thursday 15 January, with a public unveiling planned for Friday 16 January, and once installed, the artwork will remain in place until 15 February 2026.

The installation uses smocking, a technique that involves pinching and stitching fabric into repeated patterns to create a dense, sculptural surface. 

Smocking has its roots in rural working clothing, where it was valued for its durability and flexibility, particularly in farming communities.

Over time, the technique also became associated with finer clothing and ideas of the “rural idyll”.

Ms Coggan’s practice combines textiles with architecture and interiors, using traditional techniques to explore connections between buildings, place and heritage.

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For the North Tawton project, she is using the honeycomb smocking pattern, traditionally linked to English smocked frocks. 

The work is being made from hessian, a material historically used to cover buildings to help regulate the drying of lime render.

A spokesperson for Red Mud Arts said the project offers a new way to think about traditional craft.

“By using a historic rural technique on the outside of a building, the project connects people to local heritage through a very physical and tactile process,” they said.

Two public workshops are also taking place in North Tawton as part of the project, giving people the opportunity to learn more about smocking and try the technique themselves.

The first workshop took place on Sunday 11 January and focused on the honeycomb stitch used in the installation. 

A second workshop will be held on Saturday 17 January from 2pm to 4pm at North Tawton Community Centre, exploring the bird beak stitch.

The workshops are being led by Ms Coggan and cover both the history of smocking and its contemporary uses.

Research images showing smocking in both historical and modern contexts have been gathered by Exeter and Berlin based artist Sam Godfrey, who was artist in residence at Ruth Smith Gallery in October. 

These images are being displayed in the gallery window and shared during the workshops.

A Red Mud Arts spokesperson said: “We hope the project encourages people to look again at familiar buildings and materials, and to see how traditional skills can still have relevance today.”

The Smocked Building Project can be viewed on the exterior of Ruth Smith Gallery throughout the display period.