Raw Material: It’s Never Too Late to Mend

An invited talk and workshop at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge in response to the exhibition What Lies Beneath: Women, Politics and Textiles (April-August 2022) organised by Dr. Lorna Dillon.

Raw Material explored sewing for embellishment, repair and piecing together what matters. This was an open studio for making and discussion on the topics of mending, women’s sewing circles and contemporary women’s textiles.

What Lies Beneath: Women, Politics, Textiles brought together a multi-generational, international group of women artists and collectives, using textiles to comment on politics and society. Traditionally, the history of textiles is the history of women’s work. Whether hung over beds, laid on floors or worn on the body, textiles have a unique ability to communicate collective histories and individual stories.