Gypsy Maker 4

The artworks that our commissioned artists Cas Holmes and Dan Turner have produced for their Gypsy Maker 4 exhibitions have drawn together a number of elements that play important roles within Gypsy, Roma and Traveller visual culture. Emphases include depictions of flora, innovative use textiles, imaginative exploration of the photographic image, examinations of landscape and geographies—and related questions regarding the transcendence of cultural and territorial boundaries. In relation to the latter, an understanding of the implications of movement and mobility has influenced many of the artworks and their modes of manufacture. Although the majority of Romani people are no longer itinerant, the influence of a common nomadic past seems to remain significant. An emphasis on connections to landscapes and the cycles of movement precipitated by economic imperatives, such as the seasonality of agricultural labour, continue to inform Gypsy, Roma and Traveller histories and the stories that define our communities and can be seen to inform many of the works on show.