Bent Backs

When researching women who have worked on the land, I found that much of the documented history focuses on the Land Girls who worked in agriculture during the Second World War. Yet I remember the women who came from nearby villages at certain times of the year, working seasonally on the land. In reality, women have always been essential to farm life and agriculture, and yet their contribution remains largely undocumented.

The physical nature of this work requires the body to bend almost constantly, hands in contact with the earth or the crop: picking, planting, cultivating and weeding – often for days or weeks at a time and in all weathers. These women were tough. Their faces were often as weather-beaten as the landscape they worked in.

I was also drawn to the figures in Vincent van Gogh’s Potato Harvesters, particularly the strong, bent silhouettes of the workers against the landscape. This became a reference point for exploring the shape and physical presence of the women in these sculptures, and for capturing something of their resilience, strength and connection to the land.