Event
A Stitching Perspectives Class: WeMend
Saturday 26 October 2024
Participatory stitching workshop introduced by Womanifesto (In-person)
Cooper Gallery
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design,
13 Perth Road,
Dundee,
DD1 4HT
Womanifesto, a Thailand based women artists collective invite you to participate on their ongoing project WeMend that encourages people to come together to sew, embroider, patch and upcycle pieces of fabric into growing cloth work forming cross-border connections.
In our fragmented times, WeMend offers time and space to slow down – to commune, converse, repair and connect - individually and collectively contemplate on both material and non-materials matters in our lives.
For A Stitching Perspectives Class, Womanifesto will join us remotely to introduce WeMend and invite us to get involved, sewing, mending and joining fabric pieces together, sharing their stories, histories and our different perspectives around tables in the exhibition space of The Ignorant Art School.
This participatory work was first included in the exhibition Womanifesto: Flowing Connections at Bangkok Art & Culture Centre from September to December 2023, and as a continuation further community workshops have set up in Thailand (Bangkok and Udon Thani), Baroda (India) and within community spaces in UAE.
The collectively made fabric piece made at Cooper Gallery will be sent to Womanifesto to be joined with groups working in Bangkok, Kumphawapi NE Thailand, Baroda.
These cloth fragments will come together to form a continuous piece, and will be installed as a shelter-like structure in future exhibitions, where visitors are invited to continue attaching patches and make the fabric grow. The work will be part of Sharjah Biennale 16, opening February 2025.
Engaging in this meditative hands-on activity with sewing at its core, is to nurture linkages with each other and in turn with all that surrounds us.
This workshop forms part of the free curriculum of events for The Ignorant Art School Sit-in #4 Outside the Circle.
Sign-up
Event is free and open to all to attend.
Sign-up for a free space via Eventbrite.
Participant info
WeMend is an ongoing social and participatory workshop space inviting visitors and community groups to join in the ongoing activity to sew/embroider/patch/upcycle pieces of fabric together.
Womanifesto invite you to
- Gather off-cut (unused) pieces of fabrics from your locality (tailoring shops and designers) and bring your own leftover/discarded pieces of cloth carrying personal stories, to add to the basket of fabrics to be shared with fellow participants to use
- Pick any of the fabric pieces from the gallery and hand-sew them to form a larger connected piece
- Needles and thread will be available but please feel free to bring your own if you prefer
- You can patch, embroider etc. The process is open to what you would like to do – just have fun!
- After the workshop you can also continue patching at home and then bring it back and attach it to the main one taking shape collectively in the gallery
- Please tell your family and friends and ask them to join!
WeMend is available to participate in throughout the exhibition. If you would like to participate individually just ask our invigilator or to arrange a group visit to participate please email exhibitions@dundee.ac.uk
Biography
WeMend is a project by Womanifesto – an International Art Exchange (Thailand).
Womanifesto started out by hosting gatherings biannually from 1997 to build an international platform for women living in Thailand. It was first established by a group of women artists, writers and activists following an exhibition titled Tradisexion held in Bangkok in 1995. Womanifesto went on to develop a diverse range of activities spanning community-based workshops, publication and internet-related projects, workshops and residencies, and more recently a regular online meeting point entitled lasuemo (the last Sunday of each month).
Operating as a loose consortium of female practitioners, the collective is committed to supporting women’s practice through innovative projects that respond flexibly to the unfolding life events of the key members. Its organisational structure is centred around hospitality and collective generosity.
Since 2019, the Womanifesto Archives have been exhibited in multiple cities including Bangkok, Sydney and Hong Kong. In 2022, Womanifesto was featured in Documenta 15. In 2023, Nitaya established Baan Womanifesto in Udon Thani. This is Womanifesto’s first permanent space dedicated to its projects and wider engagement with the local community. Womanifesto held its first retrospective exhibition in Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in 2023.
www.womanifesto.com
Access
Cooper Gallery is located to the right side of the DJCAD buildings on Perth Road. The entrance is via double doors which face onto a car park.
The gallery is on two floors. Ground floor has ramped access. First floor is accessible by an internal lift and six steps with a handrail. Wheelchair access is via a stairclimber. Please email in advance if you require lift or stairclimber access.
First floor is also accessible via 24 steps. Two flights of 12 steps with handrails are separated by a landing.
Exhibition videos are subtitled and captioned in English. Seating is provided and/or additional seating available, please ask an invigilator.
For all enquiries please email: exhibitions@dundee.ac.uk
Toilets
The ground floor has a wheelchair accessible toilet. The toilet is gender neutral.
Interpretation
Large print versions of the exhibition information handout are available, please ask our Guides. If you require alternative formats for material in exhibitions please email or ask our Guides.
About the exhibition
Outside the Circle, is an exhibition and event programme inspired by and generated from feminist and queer movements since the beginning of the 20th century that foregrounds intersectional feminist and queer strategies of radical emancipation, resistance, survival, and collective action as critical and pedagogical ‘ruptures’ in our lived experience. It is the fourth iteration of ongoing programme, The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-ins Towards Creative Emancipation.
Visit
18 October 2024 – 1 February 2025
Monday – Saturday, 12–5pm
Image credit
Womanifesto, WeMend, participatory work, exhibition view Flowing Connections, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, 2023
Photo courtesy Womanifesto
Funding support
The Ignorant Art School Sit-in #4 at Cooper Gallery, DJCAD is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
Cooper Gallery
Exhibitions@dundee.ac.uk