A Small Space Exhibition
A Small Space collective | Group exhibition ‘A Small Space’ at The Silk Museum, a former 19th-century art school in Macclesfield.
Curators | Hannah Wooll and Julie Cassells
The Silk Museum | Park lane | Macclesfield | SK11 6TJ | Cheshire | UK
Meet The Artists Day | Saturday 16 August 12.00-16.00 All welcome!
Exhibition | Saturday 5th July - Sat 23rd August 2025
Open Times | Wednesday | Thusrday | Friday | Saturday | 10.00 - 16.00
The silk collective consists of 19 artists and the exhibition will also include work by guest artist Susan Gunn who lives in Macclesfield.
ARTISTS | Rachael Addis | Margaret Cahill | Julie Cassells | Nan Collantine | Peter Davis | Sarah Feinmann | Ruth Fildes | Susan Gunn [guest artist] | Emma Jackson | Laura Nathan | Sophie Nixon | Jen Orpin | Sam Owen Hull | Laura Pedley | Sandra Robinson | Michelle Taube | Stephanie Trow | Jude Wainwright | Emmer Winder | Hannah Woll
A Small Space is an ongoing series of exhibitions that reimagine where and how art is experienced. The collective seeks out unconventional or overlooked spaces, moving beyond the traditional white cube gallery model. Previous exhibitions have taken place in a clothes shop, an architect’s office, and an empty shop window, with locations spanning Stockport, London, Manchester, Bali, and now Macclesfield.
The collective is made up of practicing artists from across Greater Manchester who share organisational roles within the group that was founded and is led by artist, Jen Orpin.
For the current exhibition at the Silk Museum in Macclesfield, the show is co-curated by artist members Hannah Wooll, Emmer Winder, and Julie Cassells, bringing together a dynamic selection of contemporary works in a unique heritage setting.
Guest Artist | Susan Gunn
Moirai Series was created for A Small Space Collective exhibition
I Clotho II Lachesis III Atropos
Wax, earth pigment, and traditional gesso on linen, canvas, and silk over wood support
Mixed media, natural materials | 21 × 15 × 3 cm variable edge
The works are part of a new series of experimental assemblages inspired by the Moirai — the three Fates of Greek mythology: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who spin, measure, and cut the thread of human life.
They are inspired by my personal history and a response to the context of the Silk Museum
Each piece responds to the abstract essence of the Fates and their quiet, inexorable role in shaping destiny. Salvaged remnants of linen, canvas, and silk — offcuts from stretched paintings I’ve saved over years — form the base material. In my studio, such scraps are often used to polish the surface of traditional gesso. Here, they take on a more symbolic life, suggesting the threads, fragments, and fragile seams that echo the myth’s meditation on time, mortality, and the weaving of human fate.
My assemblage paintings explore the tactile language of gesso and earth pigment. Layers are built through intuitive, physical gestures — painting, polishing, cutting, tearing, nailing, screwing, sewing. The gesso’s surface fractures naturally, revealing delicate fissures that speak of tension and transformation. Finally, the work is embalmed in wax, preserving its raw, unresolved state — like a relic of something once living, held in suspension.