I've Only Been Here Half My Life - Jessie Growden - Book, Hawick, Diary, Photography, Art book, Memoir, Womanhood, Scottish Borders, Video

My art / photo / memoir / local history book, I've Only Been Here Half My Life. Made as a companion to the video installation of the same title, this project is part of Alchemy Film & Arts' Once Upon A Time in Hawick, and you can read all about it here: https://alchemyfilmandarts.org.uk/once-upon-a-time-in-hawick/ and on my website here: https://jgrowden.com/ive-only-been-here-half-my-life/

The project connects the artist’s personal experiences of growing up as a woman in Hawick to the town’s industrial heritage within the international textiles trade.
Exploring Hawick’s former Peter Scott Knitwear mill, this newly commissioned work encompasses documentary, memoir, artefacts rescued from the factory floor, and a new book featuring images of the mill following its closure.

The book features two essays, (one by Michael Pattison, a Director at Alchemy Film & Arts, the other, my award-winning essay on the love of a place in the broad context of the Common Riding), a series of diary excerpts, a short history of the Peter Scott factory in Hawick, Scotland, a poem that's a transcript of a video work in the exhibition, and many colour photographs of the Peter Scott (Pesco) factory, taken in 2018 shortly before work started to transform the complex into luxury accommodation for over-50s.


132 pages, paperback

Printed on recycled paper

210mm x 210mm x 13mm