Available Resources (1991)

A group of City Shirt Factory Workers in the Examiner’s Room, 1991

Carol: Final Press (1991)

Rosie: Trim and Notch (1991)

Karen: Turning Out (1991)

Frances: Overlocking (1991)

Project in City Shirt Factory Derry for the artist’s run project Available Resources. A series of 12 drawings done in the City Shirt Factory as part of a project with women shirt-factory workers. Available Resources, Exhibited in the City Factory and the Orchard Gallery, Derry 1991.

Walsh spent one month making charcoal drawings of women workers on the factory floor as they worked, attempting to represent all stages of the labour involved in the shirt-making process. This was part of Available Resources, an artist-led project organised by Brian Connelly and Brian Kennedy, supported and administered by the Orchard Gallery.

The contribution that the Shirt Factory industry and the mainly female workers of the city made a huge contribution to the shaping of Derry’s unique social, economic, and cultural identity. The history of this strong Shirt Factory industry stretches back to the late 1700’s. The cultural and social development of Derry centred on a predominantly female labour force. In 1991, the City Factory was one of the last big shirt factories remaining in the city, it closed as a factory in 1998.

Drawing these female factory workers employed in one of the last big shirt factories in the city was a defining moment in the development of the artist’s practice, clarifying her interest in women’s labour history.

The drawings were exhibited in the canteen of the factory and later in the Orchard Gallery in Derry.

The black and white photos of the project at the City Factory were taken by Brendan Mc Menamin in 1991.