Weighty Friend

A Shifting Worlds Event

Saturday 10 Oct 2015

10am - noon

The Iron Bridge, Ironbridge Gorge

Instigators of the Industrial Revolution, the Darby family, were devout Quakers who believed that portraiture was immodest. The bridge that was built to span the gorge at Ironbridge stands as a monument, and in its own way the only 'portrait' that exists of its modest creator Abraham Darby III and his namesakes.

Artist in residence at Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron's Darby Houses, Faye Claridge will cover the bridge in hundreds of strips of fabric with the assistance of fifty-three invited collaborators. Like an enormous rag rug or tatter coat, the multi-coloured fabric strips will soften and enliven the bridge, rippling in the breeze and reflecting rainbows in the water below.

Each side of the bridge will be altered in turn, before the bridge is returned to its original state, after its short period of 'disguise'. Visitors can watch as the transformation occurs.

More about Faye Claridge's residency