Laurie Millings wanders the countryside half-hopeful to stumble into unchartered wilderness, but is instead met with the territorial pissings of rich landowners and developers. English land has been parcelled up, and every piece is accounted for. Laurie seeks to subvert the signage, barriers and other props in the pantomime of land ownership, many of these being countless red and yellow iterations of PRIVATE PROPERTY, and TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.

BA Fine Art textile piece by Laurie Millings, depicting a large-scale multi-layered landscape view of Norfolk behind a gate.

Imagining their textile works as stage sets and props, threading influence from maps, protest banners and trade union banners, each piece made is bound for a life of shapeshifting, with no imagined final form. A piece is made, displayed, cut up, sewn to another, unpicked, and stitched back together again. The forgivingness, foldability and flexibility of fabric is what characterises Laurie’s work, as they make something from nothing, leaving edges frayed and loose threads untied.

BA Fine Art textile installation by Laurie Millings, of a red and white sign declaring land sold as a residential development plot, mounted on a wooden frame.
BA Fine Art flat textile piece by Laurie Millings, of a reconstructed Eurohike tent in a field.
BA Fine Art flat textile piece by Laurie Millings, of a reconstructed green and blue Eurohike tent in a field.
BA Fine Art flat textile piece by Laurie Millings, of a weathered sign with red writing, NACA PRIVATE ACCESS.