Making History Exhibition

Roots + Crowns | Radicalis et Corona, vital for life

The Signal Tower Museum, Arbroath
9th August – 3rd November 2025

I was delighted to be awarded a Making History Residency which took place in June 2024, funded by Historic Environment Scotland and Craft Scotland, and based at Arbroath Abbey and Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Angus. This, my first solo exhibition, ‘Roots + Crowns | Radicalis et Corona, vital for life’ brings together work developed during an intensive period of research and making, following a week-long residency between the historic grounds of Hospitalfield and the Scriptorium studio within the Arbroath Abbey site.

The work to go on display has grown out of a layered process of material exploration, site-responsive research, and collaborative exchange. Drawing from time spent working in and around the Abbey and Hospitalfield and influenced by a series of six community workshops with Home-Start Angus (a local group offering support to parents-to-be and those caring for pre-school children) the process was as much about listening and observing as it was about making. Archival threads, shared stories, and hand-led experimentation all contribute to the textures and structures of the final pieces.

The works in the exhibition explore the interweaving of place, care, and memory including a personal exploration of new grief – as at that point I had lost my Mother 6 months previously in tragic circumstances. I was gathering personal found ‘fragments’ from the past and present, mainly through collecting plant materials, exploring their journeys and physically folding them into contemporary book forms that speak of nurturing, resilience, and connection. This residency continues to influence the direction of my practice, rooted in the lived experiences of the Arbroath community.

This exhibition is dedicated to my late mother – Gillian Bristow 25.09.45-18.12.23

A maker and creator, a poet and collector, my mother – my roots and my crown.

‘In each of our own storms as we grew and took flight, your steady light held in the evening light.’

From ‘Mother to Mother’ by Felicity Bristow