Jess Hay is a local artist living in the Southside creating textile works. Her practice encourages labour-intensive processes combining technology with traditional hand-making techniques to create textile works. Her work explores new ways to translate the way we view our world, rejecting the traditional technique of artist viewing subject. Instead, Hay lets the drawings decide the adventure it takes , proposing freedom of expression and creative adventure. Hay’s art often takes the final form of a rug or tapestry using texture and colour to play with, and distort, the drawing.

The Circus is a direct response to the 26th Conference of Parties, held in Glasgow from the dates 31st October until 12th November. Hay wanted to create a physical representation of the events of the conference and the news reported about the climate crisis as a wider subject. The tapestry portrays a collection of articles, reports, and opinions published by journalists in The Herald. It tells the story of COP, from articles about conferences between world leaders, renewable energy sources and personal opinions about the crisis and conference. The rug immortalises one of the most significant events in not only Glasgow, but the world.

To see the newspaper clippings that inspired The Circus please visit Hay’s website:

https://jesshay.com/no-arrow-of-time-exhib