Love and forty years of marriage

A new exhibition celebrates 40 years of marriage and a ruby wedding for Macclesfield artists.

A new exhibition opening this month at the Silk Museum is a celebration of love and forty years of marriage for a couple of artists from Macclesfield.

Mike and Jann Thorpe, who live off Black Lane, have chosen to collaborate on their first exhibition together as part of the celebrations for their Ruby wedding anniversary.

The exhibition, Temporary with a View to Being Permanent, will see textile panels suspended in the gallery space featuring abstract images from their photo albums and their children’s drawings, representing their collective memories over the last forty years.

Jann met Mike in London when she applied for a job on Fleet Street to become an assistant to a graphic designer. Mike was her boss. At first Jann listened to her mum who told her not to get involved, but the pair went on their first date a few months later.

Jann says: “Just before I started work, I went shopping on Oxford Street to buy a new dress. I’d already worn the two dresses I had in the interviews. My mum told me not to get involved with my boss that Easter, but in July we went on our first date.

“We got on so well. We didn’t stop talking and I missed my last train, so Mike had to drive me home.”

Mike recalls: “I proposed to Jann in a supermarket car park in Cannock a few months later. We were on our way to see Manchester United play at home to Arsenal and the traffic was at a standstill.

“I was getting stressed because I’d arranged for them to read out the proposal on the tannoy at half time and I knew we weren’t going to make it.

“We ended up in a Working Man’s Club watching the match and I had to propose on the way up. I rang Manchester United, and they put me through to Tom Tyrrell who worked in the box and he read out the announcement at half time.

“My uncle and aunt heard it and the news travelled quite quickly to my mum, who wasn’t too pleased that she’d heard it from them.”

Mike and Jann, who have three grown up children, have lived in Macclesfield for 25 years and are both artists. Jann is a former primary school teacher, and her art practice is in textiles and Mike is a multi-media artist.

Mike says: “We wanted to do something to celebrate our 40 years together. Most people would go on holiday, but not us. The exhibition is not about our history, but a snapshot of our life. It is also about how we recall memories. The images are abstract to reflect the ephemeral nature of memory and the fabric panels are transparent. The colours we have chosen are very much our palette.”

Visitors to the exhibition will be able to see how Jann and Mike met and the secret to the title of the exhibition.

There will be an interactive element to the exhibition for families. Temporary with a View to Being Permanent opens on Friday April 25th and is open during Museum opening hours Wednesday to Saturday from 10am until 4pm and on Treacle Sunday April 27th.