REDEIRAS
In 2025, Ally Nolan undertook an artist residency in Olho de Boi, Almada. When she discovered that the studio she was working from had once been a fishing net factory belonging to the Companhia Portuguesa de Pesca, she began researching the women connected to the site: the Redeiras, who made and repaired fishing nets by hand.
The project grew from Nolan’s interest in women’s labour, textile knowledge and place, drawing connections between the Redeiras and female craft traditions in Ireland, where making, mending and handwork have also shaped women’s working lives.
Developed over the course of a year, this solo exhibition at Galeria Municipal de Arte, Almada brought together archival material from the Almada Museum with newly made textile works.
Redeiras
2026
122 × 770 cm
Enlarged I.D. photographs, cut and individually hand-woven into a 7.7 metre fishing net.
Based on identification photographs of women netmakers from the employment records of the Companhia Portuguesa de Pesca, held in the archives of the Museu de Almada.
MULHERES DE CORAÇÃO GRANDE
BIG HEARTED WOMEN
2026
Digital fabric print with embroidery and photo transfer text, backed on linen from the artist’s mother tablecloth; fishing net made from braided rope
This work honours the women netmakers of Almada. Their labour was physically demanding. Over time, the strain of this work led some women to develop thickened heart walls, a lasting medical condition caused by prolonged physical effort. They were described as mulheres de coração grande — women with big hearts.
Photographs
Museu de Almada
Rosa Maria, the daughter of the redeira Alexandrina da Conceição Catarino Sousa.
