Textile Legacies | Hannah Sabapathy 💬
Join Textile Legacies resident @studioplica for a talk about her learnings from Whanganui, New Zealand, including research into tapa cloth (bark cloth), harakeke (NZ flax) and "bad specimens" 🌿
📍Steps Theatre, Central Library
📆 Wednesday 27 May, 6-7pm
🎟️ FREE, link in bio
⭐ Part of @dundeemonthofdesign
Hannah Sabapathy is a Dundee-based designer who interrogates the power dynamics behind South Asian and British textile history. In March, Hannah visited fellow City of Design Whanganui for a month-long residency exploring the city's archives, collections, and creative communities.
Whanganui X Dundee: Textile Legacies is coordinated by @designdundee and @whanganuidc and supported by the British Council New Zealand and the Pacific’s Connections Through Culture Programme (@nzpacificbritish@BritishArts ) and @scotgov 's Scottish Connections Fund.
📸 Hannah Sabapathy at @dnd_designfest 2024, photography by @grantandersondotme .
My favourite endpaper from my visit in Aotearoa in the Alexander Turnbull library, Wellington. Many of the catalogues, reports and volumes have great endpaper. I’ve had a longtime appreciation of endpapers and patterned book covers. Often an added bonus when looking at lengthy colonial lists and tables.
This one is from the Catalogue of the Samples of Fibre and Manufactured Articles Prepared from the Phormium Tenax, Colonial Museum, Wellington 1871.
#artistresidency #patterenedpaper #hannahsabapathy #practiceasresearch #unescocityofdesign
Last week I got to see harakeke specimens in Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. I was expecting a lot of specimens for such a wide spread and culturally important species, Phormium tenax. But the collection isn’t extensive and in fact some herbarium sheets were described as ‘bad specimens’ as they failed to show clearly the key features of the plant.
Definitely some ideas of future textile work around ‘bad specimens’ forming. All part of my UNESCO City of design textile legacies residency in Whanganui.
#hannahsabapathy #plantsandtextiles #specimens #unescocityofdesign #classfication
Had a great morning this weekend chatting to @purewa_ and visiting the plantation where she gathers harakeke, which has plants collected from all over New Zealand. @purewa_ was so generous with her time. She showed me how she harvests the leaves and how important is to harvest to keep the plants healthy. We talked about the different varieties, their uses and the challenges of introduced invasive plants that can swamp the harakeke plants. Bramble can smother harakeke plants. The bramble was introduced in the 19th century and from the earliest formal records show it had become naturalised by 1867.
My trip to Aotearoa was made possible with the UNESCO City of Design Textile Legacies residency between Whanganui and Dundee.
#indigenousplants #materialanddesign #invasiveplants #hannahsabapathy #purewahodge
My current home, Tylee cottage thanks to the UNESCO City of Design Textile Legacies Residency between Dundee and Whanganui. I have been lucky enough to spend time in Whanganui and meet fantastic artists and makers, view some wonderful collections and understand in more depth the relationships between place, plants and people and making in Aotearoa.
@matthewmcintyrewilson will be heading to Dundee next week for his residency.
Thanks to Emma Budgen, Whanganui UNESCO City of Design, @slow_dust , @sarjeantgallery and @designdundee for making this happen!
#textilehistories #hannahsabapathy #designcities #historyofpattern
I will be talking at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui @sarjeantgallery at 7.30pm tonight about my Textile Legacies residency in Whanganui, UNESCO City of Design. I’ll be sharing my practice and some wonderful experiences and research I have been able to do during my time here.
I took part in a fantastic workshop with Purewa Hodge @purewa_ who kindly shared her extensive knowledge with us. The image is of aho I made during her workshop.
#unescocityofdesignresidency #hannahsabapathy #textilehistories #patterndesign
And the beautiful binding of A catalogue of the different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook, to the Southern Hemisphere.
#unescocityofdesign #cutclothreserach #hannahsabapathy #colonialcollecting #designresidency
I’ve been in Whanganui, New Zealand for over two weeks now. I’m here on a Textiles Legacies residency with UNESCO Cities of Design, between Dundee and Whanganui.
I’ve met lots of lovely people here, seen lots of studios and different collections and importantly understood in more depth the relationship between people, plants, place and design.
These images are from Alexander Shaw book containing a Catalogue of tapa cloth. Shaw cut up tapa collected on the voyages of Captain Cook. He put them in volumes, that he then sold. This volume is in the Alexander Turnbull library, Wellington. There are parallels between The Textile Manufactures of India and how large garment pieces were cut up to turn into small specimens. The tapa cloths are similarly reduced to tiny specimens but the rationale behind cutting is different.
#unescocityofdesign #hannahsabapathy #tapacloth #pacificdesign
A detail shot of Counterparts Series One at The Harris Museum, Preston. There are seven panels in each series, echoing the seven sets sent to South Asia. Each panel is screen printed and hand-painted enamel on steel.
#theharrismuseum #hannahsabapathy #acegrams #freelandsfoundation #decolonisingartsinstitute
