Smocked Building Project
Installation: 16th January - 15th February 2026
Workshops: 2pm-4pm Sunday 11th January &
2pm-4pm Saturday 17th January.
North Tawton Community Centre, EX20 2HN
£15 per session.
Smocking Workshops- BOOK HERE
A smocked art installation covering Ruth Smith Gallery, a film piece with local archival images, and smocking workshops.
Installation and workshops by New York based artist Annie Coggan. Film in collaboration with Exeter/Berlin artist Sam Godfrey.
We're very excited to be pioneering the first Smocked Building Project by New York based artist, Annie Coggan, who will be covering the facade of Ruth Smith Gallery with an enormous site-specific textile installation using smocked hessian.
Smocking involves pinching together fabric in patterns to create a dense almost padded textile. Its roots lie in farming work wear as it was highly durable, but it began to be used in finer clothes due to its connotations to the ‘rural idyll’.
Annie's practice incorporates interiors and architecture to explore our relationship to space through materials. By working with this very sculptural and traditional technique she connects people to place and heritage through haptic experience. The installation at Ruth Smith Gallery will use the honeycomb technique associated with the rural English smocked frock, whilst the hessian it will be made from nods to its traditional use covering buildings to regulate the drying times of lime render. Through this installation, which acts as a type of inside/outside upholstery, she pushes a traditional building material and sewing technique to an extreme to play with ideas of decoration and functionality.
Along with smocking a North Tawton building, Annie is teaching a series of smocking workshops has collaborated with Berlin/Exeter artist Sam Godfrey to research images depicting the history of smocking and its contemporary uses. These will be shown during the talk at the workshops and in future collaborations in connection with the project (stay tuned!). On Sunday 11th January Annie will teach the honeycomb stitch that Ishe is working with to Smock the Building and on Saturday 17th January, Annie will teach the bird beak stitch.
Smocking Workshops- BOOK HERE
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Honeycomb Stitch- Annie Coggan
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Bird Beak Stitch - Annie Coggan
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Smocked Hessian - Annie Coggan
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Corn Harvesting at Rill, Buckfastleigh, c. 1911, Devon Rural Archives.
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Annie Coggan, Silkscreen Edition LITTLE SMOCKED BUILDINGS, Edition 35, Printed by Kingsland Editions
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Smocking involves pinching together fabric in patterns to create a dense almost padded textile. Its roots lie in farming work wear as it was highly durable, but it began to be used in finer clothes due to its connotations to the ‘rural idyll’.
Annie's practice incorporates interiors and architecture to explore our relationship to space through materials. By working with this very sculptural and traditional technique she connects people to place and heritage through haptic experience. The installation at Ruth Smith Gallery will use the honeycomb technique associated with the rural English smocked frock, whilst the hessian it will be made from nods to its traditional use covering buildings to regulate the drying times of lime render. Through this installation, which acts as a type of inside/outside upholstery, she pushes a traditional building material and sewing technique to an extreme to play with ideas of decoration and functionality.
Along with smocking a North Tawton building, Annie is teaching a series of smocking workshops has collaborated with Berlin/Exeter artist Sam Godfrey to research images depicting the history of smocking and its contemporary uses. These will be shown during the talk at the workshops and in future collaborations in connection with the project (stay tuned!). On Sunday 11th January Annie will teach the honeycomb stitch that Ishe is working with to Smock the Building and on Saturday 17th January, Annie will teach the bird beak stitch.
Smocking Workshops- BOOK HERE
Honeycomb Stitch- Annie Coggan
Bird Beak Stitch - Annie Coggan
Smocked Hessian - Annie Coggan
Corn Harvesting at Rill, Buckfastleigh, c. 1911, Devon Rural Archives.
Annie Coggan, Silkscreen Edition LITTLE SMOCKED BUILDINGS, Edition 35, Printed by Kingsland Editions
