“Discover Crafts” was a solo show created during an artist residency at Reconsidered Goods in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

November 1 - November 23, 2024

This 3-week residency saw me creating some of the most spontaneous work of my career, assisted by the sewing machine rather than working in color knitting like I usually do. Inspired by the therapeutic fulfillment I find in arts and crafts, and continuing ideas that started with my first “Discover Crafts” banner made during 2020, I created 6 fabric banners in a corner of the store during open hours, and interacted with customers as they came through. I used all reclaimed materials from their store, as well as my own stash, almost exclusively working with fabrics that came from local garment production, which mirrored my own career in various factories, as well as, North Carolina’s textile history, past and present. The imprint that it leaves on a community, in its simplest representation in the excess materials left behind.

Three of the banners have sewing-related matras emblazoned on them and components of garment details to further emphasize the materials’ history. “One More Row” shows a girl who is arguably the star of the show, in a daze perhaps from her obsessive commitment to the knitting in her hands or maybe the bigger picture at large. Made during the week of the US presidential election, I felt like all of us has this look on our faces. Is it fear? Is it hypnotism? “Tool #1” and “Tool #2” flanked her in the show perhaps as protection, diving deeper into her crafts to push out the world, or maybe will be taken up in arms as weapons for change. Each banner hangs from reclaimed knitting needles and yarn.