Isle of Wight-based artist, Joshua Raffell, will be unveiling a new commission this summer at The Arc in Winchester.
Titled Sensibilities On The Bonnet, the work is being shown in the City Space and has been shaped by conversations with local working women, as well as through craft and collaborative storytelling.
A symbol reimagined
Joshua’s work draws on lived experiences of working women in Winchester today.
He reimagines the bonnet not as historical headwear, but as a car’s engine cover – a metaphor for the often unseen labour that drives society forward.
The artist describes the work as “a celebration of the everyday women living and working in Winchester today, whose stories so often go unheard.”
Craft, conversation and resistance
Threading together crochet, textiles, fibreglass and found materials, Joshua explores themes of resistance, resilience and resourcefulness.
His installation mixes playfulness with poignancy, stitching together the visible and invisible to create a multi-layered expression of community voices.
Joshua explains,
“For me, craft is a way to hold stories, stitching together the visible and invisible. Using mixed media – textiles, fibreglass, and found materials – I aim to weave their voices and experiences into something tangible and resonant.”
A contemporary response to historical narratives
The commission sits alongside Beyond the Bonnets: Working Women in Jane Austen’s Novels, on view in The Gallery at The Arc from July 2025.
While that exhibition explores historical depictions of women’s work in Regency Hampshire, Joshua’s work responds through a contemporary lens, placing modern voices at the heart of the conversation.
Continuing a regionally rooted practice
Supported by Arts Council England, Sensibilities On The Bonnet builds on Joshua’s recent socially engaged projects and residencies.
He will go on to present a solo show at Studio 1.1 in London, supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company.
Later this year, he begins an artist residency at Spudworks in Hampshire.
Exhibition Details
Sensibilities On The Bonnet, Joshua Raffell
City Space, The Arc, Winchester SO23 8SB
17th July – 7th September 2025
Free admission
Find out more on The Arc’s website.
