Since the summer of 2023, London-based artist Holly Graham has been in residency at Manchester Art Gallery, developing her practice in exploring the ways in which memory and narrative shape collective histories. Throughout her residency, Graham has accessed the city archives, researching the institution’s history, and collections housed at Platt Hall and Manchester Art Gallery. Her work has explored the legacies of expansionism, colonialism and exploitative labour inherent to the material history of cotton.

Graham has created new work that will enter Manchester Art Gallery’s collection and takes the form of a Victorian style cotton printed costume, modelled on the silhouette of a dress worn by African American abolitionist Sarah Parker Remond. Remond visited Manchester during a tour of Britain in 1859 and delivered an anti-slavery speech in the Athenaeum, which now forms part of Manchester Art Gallery’s footprint.

Graham’s work will be displayed in dialogue with Manchester Art Gallery as a site and through its archives. She will draw on oral history recordings and textile collections to explore the legacy and impact of the cotton industry and the industrial expansion that fueled the growth of the city and the wealth of the collectors, merchants and industrialists who founded The Royal Manchester Institute (RMI), forerunner to Manchester Art Gallery in 1823.