Mending

noun
things to be repaired by sewing or darning.

To Mend

Verb
to free from faults or defects.

Reform

Correct

Cure

Fix

Repair

Value of (the) repair?

Literal/ metaphorical

Second life; recycling, stitching, piecing back together

Time/ opportunity

Can it be repaired... to what degree?

While there are probably a few things in my life that need repairing, I feel incredibly privileged to say that, for the most part there is nothing hugely significant that comes to mind. I think that acknowledgement and understanding of that privilege is incredibly important to note and potentially an avenue to go down with the patchworks. Even though, like I said I acknowledge my privilege, I think it’s safe to say that I probably don’t really know or understand the full extent, power and impact of certain privileges.

Sustainability is both a huge topic for discussion at the moment as well as a personal interest. Over the last few months I’ve been looking at how I can make my practice more sustainable and ultimately leave a smaller carbon footprint; looking at how I can use materials resourcefully as well as the type of materials I use. In a sense how can I mend my art practice environmentally?

Trusting someone to guide you through the gardens felt incredibly calming providing a few moments of stillness to really consider what was around you. While I like to think that I’m fairly connected to my surroundings, if not occasionally too hyperaware, I was shocked at how un-sensitive my hands felt; my finger tips were almost felt numb. As an incredibly tactile person who uses their hands to create all their work it made me realise that I rely on sight and memory when touching an object to pre-empt the texture.

-Nature
-Calm
-Peace
-Extraction
-Distraction
-Moment
-Stillness
-Colour
-Texture
-Grounding
-Connection

This project is making me realise how much I appreciate moments of calm and that they are in a sense mending for me. Mending in the form of extraction/ distraction, a place of reflection and acknowledgement of the good and the bad. It's also nostalgic.

'Listen and stitch'

Hortus Botanicus Leiden

Listening and embroidering was not only therapeutic but also liberating just immediately responding to what you were hearing, extracting snippets of the persons story. Due to multitasking aspect of the exercise, you didn’t have time to overthink what you were doing as you’re too busy focusing on what the other person is saying, therefore taking away an element of control.

Yoko Ono

Lee Mingwei

Michael Swaine

Yinka Shonibare

- Ono invited visitors to hit nails into the painting.
- Full of chewing-gum wrappers, business cards, fliers, plastic bags, receipts and stray bits of paper.
- Lost it’s shape.
- An off duty museum guard decided to put the painting back to it’s original shape as she believed it wasn’t right… essentially ‘mending’ it.
- She got fired.
- At what point does participation become intervention/vandalism?

Painting to Hammer a Nail, 1961

The Mending Project, 2017

- Mingwei invited people to bring a garment in need of repair.
- Goal to share the gift of conversation between people.
- Mingwei initially used mending to react to the horrific 9/11, transforming a negative into a positive, connecting with others.
- People choose their threads, the item is ‘mended’ and at the end of the exhibition the threads are cut and unravelled.
- Aims to connect and engage with visitors, prompting them to share their emotions with him.

The free mending library

- Ice-cream style cart, with a sewing machine, umbrella and a neon sign.
- Sews for people on the 15th of every month.
- Travels from neighbourhood to neighbourhood to fix peoples clothes.
- Used as a way to engage in conversation with a variety of people, backgrounds and reasons.
- His aim is not only to converse with others but also think about what’s mended, why it’s being mended as well as why things are being thrown away.

The African library, 2017

- “The British Library” which explores “the impact of immigration on all aspects of British culture and considers notions of territory and place, cultural identity, displacement and refuge.”
- Commemoration of the fight for independence in European colonies across the African continent and Inspired by the emancipation (liberation) of the African continent.
- Books covered in Dutch wax printed textile.
- Printed on the spines of many of the books are the names of immigrants who have contributed significantly to UK culture.

Kintsugi- Join with gold.

The Japanese art of mending objects by beautifully highlighting and enhancing the breaks with gold, which shimmer like scars. I’m fascinated by the art especially in connection with sustainability. They are perfect examples of mending beautifully, elegantly yet simply. The single use of gold creates consistency, wrapping around the piece like veins.

Michaels Swaine’s point questioning why, as a society we have a tendency to throw things away without much thought of mending really stood out to me. Also questioning why something has been thrown away.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

With sustainability in mind I have collect a range of discarded textile scraps, which I will join together to create my patches, using one single colour mimicking that of the gold used in Kintsugi. As I mentioned at the beginning, I feel incredibly privileged to say that there are few crucial things in my life that need mending and have therefore taken a more process led approach to this project. This has enabled me discover how medatitive and calming I find the actual action of sewing. The melodic process enables more to destress and reflect on daily life as well as 'tune-out'.

Tomory Dodge- Bad Driving, 2013

Intrigued by the fluidity, the layering as well as the organised yet haphazard nature of this piece. It is both playful yet a carefully considered composition, an element I would like to include in my textile piece. While I'll be limited to the scraps I find I can still be playful in terms of composition, piecing it together similar to that of Kintsugi yet revealing raw edges and the unruly nature of the scraps.

More value in the sense that these scraps would be otherwise discarded as they no longer help any value or use to the original owner.

Nick White

-Collage
-Playful
-Childlike
-Free
-Experimental

Final Patch?

Initially I was going to sew all the scraps together, piecing them in a way that wouldn’t disturb their original shape, then cut out the three patches. However after discussing in class it was agreed that I should leave it as one large patch as it would go against the sustainability aspect of the piece; creating more waste.

Using the embroidery techniques we learnt in a class last week I used a combination of running stitch and blanket stitch. Sewing the piece together by hand enabling me to put into practice the mindful, melodic process of literally mending. I've really enjoyed just immersing myself into the exploring and experimenting with process something which I rarely allow myself to truly do, with less pressure on the outcome and more emphasis on the actual craft.