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Mending in Practice
The history of mending and mending techniques in my practice has become a more specific facet of my ongoing interest in the gendering of fine art vs. craft throughout the centuries. The detailed hand stitching of mending scars naturally display the intimate relationship and innate sustainability humans used to have with their clothes. The very act of mending a textile today becomes a form of resistance in itself: resistance to the relationship- or lack thereof- we have with our belongings we are so quick to discard. When one actively chooses to mend a garment, saving it from the landfill, a relationship is thus formed. ‘Darn it’, like any mending act, looks to intervene in the rapid death cycle of consuming clothing today, and to help foster deeper relationships with one's objects as a whole.
Mending is a form of resistance. Coming together at the Textile Arts Center on the first Sunday of each month, we explore this intervention through the act of mending our precious textiles: forming relationships with our clothes, objects, and with each other. Darn it! Is hosted by Martina Cox, Hekima Hapa and Kate Sekules.
This is an informal workshop, where people of all ages, walks of life and hand-sewing skill-level come together to share a table, mends, and in turn so much more. Coming on 4 years running in 2026, this gathering has become a special third space, a community. So many friendships, bonds, and connections have been born here at Darn it.
New York is desperate for more third spaces, it is what used to make up the very fabric of this city, and Darn it! Is our way to start to mend, in every sense of the word, this gap.
Come this September, I will be joining Tatter Blue Research Library as part of their 6-part mending series to teach an online course on mending. This lesson will be looking at mending through a more creative lens- and finding opportunities for composition, color and celebration through highlighting the very part of the textile in need of mending.
This is my first iteration of a more formal, instruction-based lesson (rather than the more free-form aspect of mending club) and am excited to start integrating these types of lessons into future programming for Darn it!