Patching the archive - workshop led by Caroline Ip in collaboration with In Between Knots
In this workshop led by Caroline Ip, we drew on the parallels between the act of patchworking and the idea of cultural identity as constantly in motion (as 'becoming' not 'being').
This session introduced sewing techniques from different cultural traditions of patchwork, through which we explored the notion of an archive as an active and creative process. Through stitch, we both gave new life to used, loved and worn fabrics, and explored the significance of this radical, collective and intimate craft.
Resources to explore:
Stuart Hall, 'Cultural Identity and Diaspora', 1996
The Dynamic Archive - https://www.thedynamicarchive.net/ (collaborative, evolving open-source digital archive), especially Liudimila Savelyeva, 'Of Patterns, Archives, and Resistance', 2024
Gillies Deleuze and Félix Guattari, '1440: The Smooth and the Striated', 1988 (from A Thousand Plateaus)
About the facilitator:
Caroline Ip is an artist and facilitator based in London, whose practice brings together interests in diasporic identity, storytelling, and archives.
Drawn to handsewing, quilting and needlework, perhaps in part due to ancestral connections to the textiles industries in Lancashire and China, these techniques become media through which Caroline explores her own mixed heritage and nurtures collective dialogue and storytelling in community spaces.
Drawn to handsewing, quilting and needlework, perhaps in part due to ancestral connections to the textiles industries in Lancashire and China, these techniques become media through which Caroline explores her own mixed heritage and nurtures collective dialogue and storytelling in community spaces.