McHUGH, Letty

 

Haworth-based Artist and writer, Letty McHugh, combines words with the visual arts to commemorate, celebrate and illustrate the life experiences of individuals and groups. She has written of her work:

Generally I create long running participatory projects which can lead to a wide range of outcomes, in the past, this has included installation, soft sculpture and artist books.  The medium of my work is irrelevant, I am interested in communicating ideas and I will work in whatever media I feel is the best way of communicating a particular concept with my intended audience.

An example of Letty’s work was with the 2019 ‘We’ve Got Joy’ commissioned project when Letty, to mark the demise of Bury Football Club, gathered the first-hand experiences of female fans of Bury Football Club and then printed selected quotes on a calico scarf  five-metre in length (see image below).  The print and dying techniques were chosen to also commemorate the pioneering place of Bury’s manufacturing past in textile history.

 

 

Letty was born and raised in Keighley.  After completing school and a course at a further education college, she continued her studies at Bath Spa University, graduating in 2012 with a BA (Hons) Creative Arts (Art with Creative Writing). During her time at Bath she exhibited her work at the Young Bath Artists show, Pop-up Gallery, in the town.

After graduation in 2013 she exhibited work that year at the Northlight Summer Showcase, Northlight Art Studios, Hebden Bridge, and overseas at the Print Exchange, Graphic Arts Workshop, San Francisco, USA.

In 2015 Letty completed an advanced course at Leeds College Of Art, gaining a Masters Degree in Creative Practice.

Since then she has been involved in a range of commissions and projects that explore the universality of personal experiences, and particularly human resilience and responses in the face of adversity and change.  She has been the recipient of a number of Commissions and Awards, including from the  Arts Council, Disability Arts, and Bradford 2025 City of Culture Bid (see artist’s website for full details of all Awards and Commissions).

Letty’s current work is influenced by Situationist Theory – that a given situation can significantly affect individual and group behaviour, rather than because of the personal traits of the individuals concerned;  and Object Theory – that the primary value of all objects is in their ability to evidence human existence and communicate intangible emotions, memories and experiences.

A good example of these theories in practice was with her 2019 ‘Seaworthy Vessel Project’, funded by an Emergence Bursary from the organisations Shape, Disability Arts Online, and a-n.  In this project she explores the idea of seaworthiness – inspired by the fleeting sight of rusting ship parts in a scrapyard – as a metaphor for attitudes in society to those deemed equally ‘unseaworthy’.  This was also linked to her formative memories of her Great-Grandfather Billy, sent home from the Merchant Navy in 1944 after an accident at sea, leaving him with with a severe hand disability. The project connected too, with her own health experiences of dealing with fatigue and hand spasms caused by Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

The Seaworthy Vessel Project involved the creation of 1000 origami boats, folded from paper printed with selected personal writings, including texts taken from her Great-Grandfather’s journals, and her own diaries written during  MS relapses that particularly affected her hands.  An online book, ‘Some Days I Am The Sea’, accompanied the project and can be down loaded  (see artist’s website, below).

 

 

You can see and hear Letty talk about her project at Seaworthy Vessel Project

 

Letty has taken an active role in communicating, via workshops, talks, and articles, with other artists, as well as with a wider audience, on a wide range of issues, including the visual arts, society, and disability.  For example, from 2015 onwards, she has had online and printed articles published by a range of outlets, including the Disability Arts Online Magazine.   She also writes a blog (see artist’s website, below).

 

Above: Letty talk to an audience at the Tate Exchange about her Seaworthy vessel Project

 

In recent years, her artwork has been  shown at both group and solo exhibitions, including group shows at the Art House, Wakefield, and Left Bank, Leeds, and solo shows at the Northlight Art Studios, Hebden Bridge. Keighley Creative also hosted a joint show shared between Letty and Jess Kidd in September – October, 2021.

She also designed a light installation project: ‘Let Brilliant Talents Shine Forth’ for the front of Keighley Library, which captured the spirit of words spoken at the opening ceremony of the Keighley Mechanics Institute in 1825.

In 2023, Letty won The Barbellion Prize for her book ‘Book of Hours: An Almanac for The Seasons of The Soul’. Book of Hours is a collection of lyric and essay poetry which explores what it means to have faith, why we chase suffering, and how to take solace in small joys. It is half Almanac, half prayer book, and is inspired by medieval Books of Hours which offered guidance for different situations and times of year. Letty uses her own Book of Hours to explore her extended isolation following a flare-up of her Multiple Sclerosis. Because she was unable to find a spiritual guidebook for fellow lost, sick artists, Letty decided she would make her own. The book borrows ideas from Anglo-Saxon hermits, contemporary artists, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

The themes of this book were further explored in her textile installation ‘Anchorage’, inspired by medieval anchoresses who lived and worked in dedicated cells, or ‘anchorages’. The installation takes the form of a soft fabric tent as a type of modern anchorage. Although anchorages created space for isolation, the community around them would also come to the anchoresses for spiritual guidance. In this work, Letty draws parallels between anchoresses and her own existence as a chronically ill artist. Within this installation plays the audio from another of Letty‘s projects, ‘Watches for an Ordinary Day’: a selection of six verbal ruminations from Letty, responding to a specific time of day.

Artist’s Website: Letty McHugh

Instagram:  Letty McHugh