MA RCA Research Abstract:

In a global community of predominantly women makers*, the voice of cloth and its makers speaks to a swathe of peripheral worlds that surround the ‘terminal inequality’*, caused by the oppressive structures that drive mass production and consumerism. Cloth is a spokesperson within this global making. This research listens to the stories of how cloth can both harm and heal and considers the ways in which it could care. Could care become a louder story of cloth? My own textiles practice, feminist care ethics and transnational feminist praxis provides a context to consider care-led textiles making, interconnected across border lines, in the endeavour of collective wellbeing* for the global community of women makers. In this research I make a case for intercultural, care-led socially engaged praxis based on this context. Secondly, this research considers the pros and cons of a framework for this praxis, working towards considering it’s possible ingredients, and finally, crafting a working denition of ‘caring cloth’ praxis. This is in response to the question: how might we develop socially engaged textiles practice with women globally through care? Caring cloth praxis offers a response through its ingredients inclusive of radical compassion*, openness to the unknown*, feminist methodologies, time, story, and community. The research proposes women’s making circles as a tool of social care.

The dissertation that gathered this circle of women’s words and works, entitled ‘Caring Cloth’, received a distinction at the Royal College of Art and was the selected Textiles research at the RCA Dissertation Symposium 2021.

Development of this research for my PhD will be presented at the Textile Society of America’s 2024 Symposium ‘Twists and Strands’ speaking on the research question:

‘Caring Cloth: Ethics of Loss, Practices of Remembering -

In the context of the arts and social justice, how do personal ‘practices of remembering’: handmade textiles, poetry and storytelling, and ephemeral keeping, contribute to an ethics of loss that promotes individual, collective, and intercultural care?’

*References available here