A NORTH Tawton art gallery has been given a new look as part of a project exploring smocking as an art form and its effect on people’s sense of space.

New York-based artist Annie Coggan has covered the facade of the Ruth Smith Gallery with custom-made hessian smocking, a dense, padded-like textile created by pinching fabric together into a decorative design, for the gallery’s first-ever Smocked Building Project.

The gallery is covered in hessian honeycomb smocking. This type of smocking was once used in English smocked frocks, and hessian was used to cover lime mortar while it dried.

The Smocked Building Project runs from January 16 to February 15 and included an exhibition of Annie’s work and smocking workshops held on January 11 and 17.

Gallery owner and artist Ruth Smith said the workshops were popular and sparked extensive discussion.

“It was really well-attended and nice because it generated a lot of conversation,” she said.

“We sat there doing this really traditional technique and having really interesting conversations about smocking and its potential—what happens if we dip it in coffee, have mossy smocked walls, living walls for birds to live in, or if we create a beehive from it?”

Annie also teamed up with Berlin and Exeter artist Sam Godfrey to examine images of the history and modern uses of smocking.

Sam had shown their work at the Ruth Smith Gallery before, including a smocked installation. That piece drew so much attention that Sam reached out to Annie, who also works with smocking.

Ruth came up with the “bonkers” idea to smock the gallery after Annie showed her a photoshopped picture of a building covered in smocking.

Smocking was first used for farm clothing because it was durable. Later, it became a popular style for finer clothes as wealthier people sought an idealised version of rural life.