The Hearth Gallery are delighted to present the Dementia Darnings exhibition by multi-media artist Jenni Dutton. In this body of work, Jenni responds to her mother’s dementia diagnosis by using stitching to re-create portraits of her mum from old photo albums. The exhibition has toured extensively in the UK and travelled to Europe, and China. This will be the first time it’s shown in Wales and the Hearth Gallery are proud to host it.
Jenni will also be joined by her daughter, Briony Goffin, who will deliver creative writing workshops – Writing as Tribute. Inspired by the Dementia Darnings exhibition, this warm and welcoming creative writing workshop will explore the power of Writing as Tribute. With support and guidance from writer and tutor, Briony Goffin, participants will be given opportunity to write a tribute to someone special in their lives in the form of a simple list poem. No previous writing experience required, and all writing materials provided.
This workshop also takes its inspiration from Briony Goffin’s TED talk, Writing as an Act of Tribute, in which Briony uses the form of the list poem to honour her grandmother, Gladys Dutton, the subject of the artwork in the Dementia Darnings exhibition. This project has created opportunity for mother and daughter’s work to overlap, and to bring three generations of women back together again.
This project was kindly funded by the Cardiff & Vale Health Charity Staff Lottery.
The series known as the Dementia Darnings developed from my mother’s interest and joy in looking through family photo albums. She was diagnosed with dementia in 2011 and as my role as carer increased it seems only possible to continue my practice by making her and our situation the subject of my work. She enjoyed having me around, watching me curiously when I occasionally brought the canvases to her house to work on. I was amazed by her reaction, her engagement with the process given her deteriorating memory.
My background is in fine art, rather than fibre based. I developed the images in a way similar to making a cross hatched drawing, by sewing through fine bobinette netting stretched over a canvas. It is a slow, meditative process. Each one can take up to three or four months to complete.
The series grew as my mother went into a nursing home. As I relinquished her care to other people, I became an observer. I continued to make the work which had now become about universal ageing, about time passing and about documenting her decline due to the development of dementia. I began to separate each length of of the tapestry wool into its individual strands, ironing them to remove the kinks. This finer yarn helped to convey her gentle frailty. She died peacefully in 2015.
The Dementia Darnings have travelled extensively in the U.K. and Europe, and a selection reached China in 2018. I can be contacted via my website
Jenni Dutton, April 2022
