The Fabric

A large piece of raw canvas (approximately 50m x 1m), has been a medium to work collaboratively with embroidery, applique, patchwork, fabric origami, among others, but also a way to work with space to display, accompany and to host. To me this fabric fulfills the role of an ever-changing archive, partly as a diary, as a way to stay with the trouble, and a reminder of relational make-up that builds my practice and me as a person.

Inspired by Patricia Kaersenhout

I started working with this fabric in 2019, after I joined the training (New) Formats of Care in Times of Violence from Patricia Kaersenhout at Trainings for the Not-Yet, BAK 2018-2019, where I sat together with other bodies who identified as men to embroider and talk about men’s violence towards women. The experience was deeply transformative for me. Ever since, I’ve been greatly inspired by the practice of sitting together to embroider with its healing effects.  

Memory and transformation

Significantly, I use the fabric as a body of memories, as a living archive being built in collaboration with different users in diverse positions. Until now, the motive of the archive is working with belonging. Each position with the fabric, there are at least two ways of using it: adding a new motif/ a new item, or modifying an existing one. This kind of intimate work is then engaged in company, with care and love, each time procuring subtle material transformations. In this way, as a tool of sorts, the fabric helps working with loosening fixities in belonging, toward becoming. A space where external material transformations are entangled with the personal ones.