The Oyster Women

Inspired by the sea, its people and Island Heritage Katherine approached Doug Ford at the Maritime Museum where she discovered the historical roles of maritime women were at risk of being fogotten.

The exhibition is inspired by the Oyster trade that was once a booming industry in Gorey Harbour from 1810 to 1871 . At the heart of this industry was the Oyster women. Katherine said how the story of the oyster women moved her and inspired her to create this body of work to comemorate them.

“Hundreds of women would gather on the beach and sort, package and carry baskets of oysters to be shipped onto boats bound for England.  It was hard physical, dirty work and these hardworking women were the backbone of the industry.  Yet no records of them exist. I spent the year researching history books, the Jersey museum, the Societe Jersiaise, and the archives of the museum at the Sir Francis Cook gallery, and was astonished to discover that not one name, photograph or significant painting of any of these women exists.  Overfishing of the native flat Jersey oyster rendered the oyster, and the memory of these women extinct.”
 
The exhibition consists of mixed media paintings, print, copper engravings as well as oyster. The work is influenced by Byzantine icons as well as Gaudi and Klimt. The work also takes names of women living in the area in the 1871 Jersey census - women that may have been involved in the oyster trade.