Mending as a Social Art Practice

My recent work focuses on social art practices that explore and prioritize care through building community. Participants consciously or subconsciously question and challenge established systems and habits of how we organize community and work and create social connection.

People have always created informal networks of care in communal settings: mutual aid networks, community gardens, clubs and quilting circles. My work builds on the traditions of caring folk. In many western societies this work is underappreciated, underpaid and/or invisible. Care is often commodified and sold as product instead of treated as a valuable and sophisticated process of relationship building across cultural, societal, class and language barriers.

In contemporary society, people live in and with textiles. It is a universal language we all “speak” regardless of background, geographic location, class or resources. Our relationships and ability to create community express in the social fabric we weave together.

In a polarized and disconnected society our communal “cloth” is suffering from wear and tear and a lack of knowledge how to weave new strands together. Mending is a literal and metaphorical expression of the act of caring and repairing the social fabric together.

In a communal mending practice, experiences of care and trust result from creatively engaging with material, thought and each other in a creative welcoming setting. These regularly scheduled gatherings are informal, don’t require prior knowledge and are free for everyone in an effort to extend the invitation to the broadest audience possible.

Human beings need interactions and relationships that are genuine, honest and intimate to care for and about one another. Only if we extend our habitual circles of care and include kin and strangers alike will we be resilient and able to creatively solve problems in a world with increasingly complex challenges.