POSTCARDS FROM THE SILK ROAD: Hidden codes & connections
A contemporary art project by Macclesfield based artist J R Oatts, created in response to Paradise Mill and the town’s silk heritage.
EXPLORE THE PROJECT
BACKGROUND
As part artist’s J R Oatts MA Fine Art with Falmouth University, she has been studying at silk as a material that carries stories of movement and memory and exchange. Based in Macclesfield, which was once at the centre of the UK’s silk industry, the exhibition draws on two years of research, collaboration and creative exploration into Macclesfield’s stories of silk and how these can be explored using contemporary art practices.
RESEARCH
The project has been shaped by archival research, historical objects, personal stories and conversations with artists and local communities. The exhibits showcases objects in the mill in new ways, shining a spotlight on stories – real and imagined – that appear hidden in plain sight, focusing on the traces people leave behind, from address cards, to secret codes, to broken wheels to bricks from nearby silk weavers cottages.
LOCATION
Paradise Mill has a distinctive atmosphere, shaped by its machinery, materials and the sense of history and hidden stories held within the space. The artworks in the exhibition respond to this by introducing colour, movement and contemporary artworks in a way that sits alongside the existing museum experience rather than competing with it, allowing the work to appear as new moments of discovery as visitors explore the mill.
ARTWORKS
New artworks will be added as the project develops.
Postcards from the Silk Road – various. Acrylic on silk wrapped postcards, J R Oatts, 2026
Postcards from the Silk Road – various. Acrylic on silk wrapped postcards, J R Oatts, 2026
Close up, Postcards from the Silk Road – Stockholm. J R Oatts, 2026
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Created in response to Paradise Mill in Macclesfield,the exhibition brings together painting, silk, sound, postcards, found objects and abstract works.
The works explore the links between local industry and wider global routes, between silk and communication, between repeated patterns and hidden meaning.
EXHIBITION DATES
Wednesday 4th-Saturday 21st November 2026
Paradise Mill & Silk Museum Macclesfield, SK11 6TJ
