Through the hours of sewing, knotting, fastening, stitching, affixing, hooking, and pinning — portals opened to other places and times. It was an immersive practice of futures feeling (rather than thinking). Craft becomes a tactile, hands-on means of unfolding future potential. Upcycling becomes an act of remembering. Garment-making and costume design become acts of writing and worldbuilding. @memorywork_ “Worldbuilding with Textiles” workshop facilitated by Jen Maramba (@jenmaramba ), Tala Kamea (@talatintin ), Naomi Skwarna (@naomisk ), and Macy Siu & Robert Bolton (From Later @since21xx ). Hosted at The Bentway (@thebentway ). Photography by Omii Thompson (@omii_film ).

With the apron as our canvas for speculating on future ways of working and living, we wondered: what do the decorative, protective, and functional details of aprons reveal about the people who wear them? How does workwear reflect the aesthetic, cultural, and ethical sensibilities of a specific time and place? @memorywork_ "Worldbuilding with Textiles" workshop facilitated by Jen Maramba (@jenmaramba ), Tala Kamea (@talatintin ), Naomi Skwarna (@naomisk ), and Macy Siu & Robert Bolton (From Later @since21xx ). Hosted at The Bentway (@thebentway ). Photography by Omii Thompson (@omii_film ).

Our “Worldbuilding with textiles” workshop blended futures thinking techniques with textile arts practices to collectively imagine potential worlds and ways of being. The experimental process braided the spiritual work of remembering, the cognitive work of imagining futures, and the craft work of the textile arts. @memorywork_ "Worldbuilding with Textiles" workshop facilitated by Jen Maramba (@jenmaramba ), Tala Kamea (@talatintin ), Naomi Skwarna (@naomisk ), and Macy Siu & Robert Bolton (From Later @since21xx ). Hosted at The Beltway (@thebentway ). Photography by Omii Thompson (@omii_film ).

Forecast Public Art featured Memory Work as a case study in FORWARD Issue 7: Monuments and Memorials. The issue explores a shifting commemorative landscape where artists are challenging systems of power through new monuments with new interpretations of history, public participation, and aesthetic innovation. Thanks @forecastpublicart @newmonumentstaskforce & guest-editor Claire Flanegin (@sleepygirlsclub ) for including us!

Thanks @thejesssmith for taking a moment for Memory Work at @thebentway . Memory Work is a monument that commemorates a speculative world. Concerned equally with the relational and the imaginary, the Memory Work Collective engages in the mutual recounting and reconstruction of lived experience to contemplate possible worlds. Their research-based practice creates material for meditation, critique and new ways of living — negotiating ethical and moral imperatives across (past, present and future) time. @rajniperera @talatintin @naomisk @studioonstrike @omii_film @_macysiu_ @arowbe @jacsanscartier @from_syd @mechaclarke @jenmaramba @miluandashou @gutflora_ @sundanceharvest @dori_tunstall

Are you seeing these Memory Work posters around Toronto? Tag us in your pictures! And tap in to the Memory Work phone line at 1-855-910-2050 ext. 7 to learn more about Dom (pictured here) and the Mothers of Invention. #memorywork #publicart #futuresthinking #specdesign #mothersofinvention #scenario #toronto

The Memory Work mural is now open in Toronto (located at The Bentway’s Strachan Ave. gate under the Gardiner Expressway – 250 Fort York Blvd.) Made up of twelve portraits of revolutionary figures from a future Toronto, this speculative monument imagines a world characterized by collective care and politics that value nurturing over growth. 1. View of Memory Work mural from The Bentway’s amphitheatre. Visit the site and call into 1-855-910-2050 to learn about each of the characters depicted here. Photographed by: Samuel Engelking 2. Memory Work Collective (from left to right: Cheyenne Sundance, Emily Woudenberg, Jennifer Maramba, Robert Bolton, Macy Siu, Tala Kamea, Dori Tunstall, Rajni Perera, Naomi Skwarma, Omii Thompson, Xiyao (Miranda) Shou). Photographed by: Samuel Engelking Huge thanks to everyone for your contributions! @rajniperera @talatintin @naomisk @studioonstrike @omii_film @_macysiu_ @arowbe @whyteerica @jacsanscartier @from_syd @mechaclarke @jenmaramba @miluandashou @gutflora_ @sundanceharvest @dori_tunstall @jeremyglennmusic @thebentway @contactphoto @Culture_TO @idealblackfemale @miss_singh @al_ik_ca @atmonline_ @samuelengelking @since21xx @memorywork_ #memorywork #art #specdesign #publicart #contactfestival #mural #futures #toronto #photography #monument #collective #collectivecare

This is Bao, the creative biologist you heard about in the Memory Work audio soundscape (). Bao and her contemporaries are going to be commemorated in a speculative monument to Toronto’s potential. Launching May 1st in Toronto at The Bentway, the Memory Work mural will feature twelve portraits of revolutionary figures responsible for transitioning the city to a regenerative economy.   Embellished photography: Rajni Perera with Omi Thompson; Costume design: Tala Kamea and Naomi Skwarna; Concept: From Later; Model: Xiyao (Miranda) Shou Co-presented by From Later and The Bentway with support from the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival as part of ArtworxTO: Toronto's Year of Public Art 2021–2022. Additional support by the Canada Council for the Arts, City of Toronto, and the Toronto Arts Council. #memorywork #contactfestival #publicart #torontoarts #photography #specdesign #artworxto  #TorontoPublicArt #ArtistsTO #TOArts #TOartists #TorontoArt #TorontoArtist @memorywork_   @rajniperera @talatintin @naomisk  @studioonstrike @omii_fans  @_macysiu_ @arowbe @whyteerica @jacsanscartier @naomisk @thebentway @miluandashou @from_syd @idealblackfemale @contactphoto @culture_to

The Victorian Era established many traditional ideals of womanhood – men were viewed as breadwinners while the role of upper-class housewives were deemed dependant “women of leisure”, dedicated to home, hearth, and kin. The craft of hair art – a practice that stemmed from the female’s role in the home – became a crucial part of everyday life that defined the period. Its rise in popular culture within the 18th and 19th C also created a means of employment for the middle class. Hair was a way to tend to your family and home through the ornate and sentimental preservation of passed loved ones, while hair workers were celebrated in publications, advertisements, and stories as curators of personal expression that intensified the relationship between the home, lifestyle, and goods. The Cosmetic Healer in Memory Work offers personal care services that are not only aesthetic but also affective, with hair treatments considered the most sacred; hair is seen as a way to record our selfhood and histories. What labour of care might help stimulate growth for you? What stories might we preserve for our ancestors? . . . memory-work.com (link in bio) Design: @studioonstrike ⁠ #Victorianhair #VictorianEra #hair #hairsalon #hairdresser #intimacy #care #beauty #stylists #memorywork #futureofwork #futures #designfiction #futures #speculativefutures #scenario #toronto #soundscape #culturalartifacts #memorywork

What does it mean to become better ancestors? . . . memory-work.com (link in bio) Design: @studioonstrike ⁠ #kin #kinlessness #ancestral #ancestors #formingkin #community #care #memorywork #futureofwork #futures #designfiction #futures #speculativedesign #scenario #toronto #soundscape #culturalartifacts #memorywork

Haircare is deeply woven into African customs and histories of the slave trade. Using techniques and styles that are still cherished today, African women and mothers would often braid rice into their children’s hair, along with other grains, as a source of food under the harsh conditions of transatlantic slavery. By hiding grains and other provisions in flat braids and cornrows, rice not only allowed for descendants to survive on plantations but also led to the diffusion and appropriation of seeds special to Africa towards the establishment of plantations in Brazil, the Caribbean, and America. Judith A. Carney's Essay 'Grains in Her Hair’ sheds light on this less documented colonial experience that is tied to global markets. Continuing to reflect on black histories and these power relations, what kinds of memory work can we do to recount and reconstruct lived experiences? How can patterns of intergenerational trauma be reimagined? What does it mean to become better ancestors? . . . memory-work.com (link in bio) Design: @studioonstrike ⁠

The FX Beauties is an anonymous female trading collective in Japan that’s been active long before 2007. Comprised of mainly housewives, they're now trading an average of $9.1 billion per day on the Forex exchange. Building on the impact of the FX Beauties, “(On the Floating World of) the FX Beauties” is a research project that re-examines how an otherwise invisible economy is powerfully subverting conventions of a woman’s role and place in Japanese culture. Through a digital collection of theories surrounding gender, finance, and architecture, the project focuses on how these women have leveraged digital infrastructure and connectivity within traditional Japanese homelife, ultimately hybridizing domesticity and global capital. The FX Beauties phenomenon has not only disrupted social and spatial order, but is redefining what’s considered domestic work. Memory Work asks: How might redefinitions of the homespace challenge the way we understand domestic work or public and private life? What might a women-led workforce, business model, or economy look like?  . . . memory-work.com (link in bio) Design: @studioonstrike ⁠ #fx #forex #fxbeauties #home #housewives #stayathome #domestic #mom #memorywork #futureofwork #futures #designfiction #futures #speculativefutures #scenario #toronto #soundscape #culturalartifacts #memorywork