12th-21st SEPTEMBER 2025
< All Artists

2023

Heidi Luker

Installation

Artist Statement

Ambergate Wireworks – The Part They Played, is a collaborative site-specific R & D project, between me, and local visual artist, Lise Bennett. Funded by Arts Council England and National Lottery, as a co-production with Derby Museum of Making. It explores our visual responses to how Ambergate Wireworks (Manchester based Johnson & Nephew Ltd), changed the course of communication technology, engineering, energy, fashion, warfare, farming and freedom of movement, through an interactive immersive installation of a soundscape of workers memories, twelve suspended 3D wire drawings, from which large shadows of moving landscapes can be made, and a video by Gavin Repton.

Artist Website
Rolling in the Deep 35cm wide x 15cm high Material: Black iron wire During WW2, they manufactured wire for wartime items including wire for grommets, in anti-submarine/torpedo wire netting (Sea Wall Protection) for coastline areas. The nets, large metal rings were suspended from floating bollards in the sea.
When the Empire Calls 35cm wide x 15cm high Material: Black iron wire Richard Johnson & Nephew were the first British company to be sold the US patent for barbed wire. In 1899, they produced over 3,000 (out of 4.500) miles of barbed wire fencing for the Boer War.
When the Empire Calls 35cm wide x 15cm high Material: Black iron wire Richard Johnson & Nephew were the first British company to be sold the US patent for barbed wire. In 1899, they produced over 3,000 (out of 4.500) miles of barbed wire fencing for the Boer War.
Seven Seconds 35cm wide x 20 cm high Material: Black iron wire WW1 wire pins in hand grenades. After the pin is removed there is roughly seven seconds until it explodes. I chose this title because it’s the title of a song about the first moments of birth.
Seven Seconds 35cm wide x 20 cm high Material: Black iron wire WW1 wire pins in hand grenades. After the pin is removed there is roughly seven seconds until it explodes. I chose this title because it’s the title of a song about the first moments of birth.
Right Here, Right Now 35cm wide x 15cm high Material: Black iron wire Strand wire was used in the building of Sellafield Nuclear Plant. Reflecting my response to global warming and the current energy crises, desk fans search for sockets and rows of pound signs sit like birds of prey.
Right Here, Right Now 35cm wide x 15cm high Material: Black iron wire Strand wire was used in the building of Sellafield Nuclear Plant. Reflecting my response to global warming and the current energy crises, desk fans search for sockets and rows of pound signs sit like birds of prey.