SKY (detail) – Thread Bearing Witness (full credit see page 49) Cotton, rayon and metallic thread on printed canvas (3m x 8m, 2018) Courtesy the artist and Candida Stevens Gallery. Photograph: Joe Low

Afghan embroidery. His circumstances were very compromised and difficult and we’ve now lost touch with him. So it’s been heart-rending.

I went with Tamsin to PIKPA refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. That was very different. We made different things every day, building up trust with the residents. I now send out art and sewing materials, wool and crochet hooks so that the camp can continue making. Much of the project exists outside what is actually represented in the exhibition, and I feel that’s really important. We wanted to include those who just wanted to be part of the project but aren’t refugees themselves. So we devised the Stitch a Tree project, inspired by the work of Refugee Resilience Collective, a group of narrative psychologists and psychotherapists working in the Calais camp. They held drawing workshops with children and used the tree of life as a narrative therapy tool, describing it as a symbol of strength, life and nourishment. For the Stitch a Tree project, we invited people to contribute stitched trees. These form a collective forest, which reflects the idea that we are all individuals but we come together as a shared world. We expected 200 to 300 contributions, but there are now about 5,000. We have had trees sent to us from groups of schoolchildren who have never stitched before, and beautiful exquisite contributions from experts. It’s multicultural, cross-generational and across genders. This has been a really extraordinary wave of human support, and it is still growing – it’s almost unstoppable. Meeting with refugees has made me constantly

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reflect back on my own privilege. It can be very troubling to feel a helplessness to make change. Equally, we feel inspired by people who are living through traumatic circumstances. We are constantly asking ourselves if what we are doing is actually helping. This notion of bearing witness and authenticity has been hard to negotiate and is very sensitive. I’m not an expert in migration. I’m just an artist. I can’t resolve these issues, but I can show that I care.

Textiles is a medium that has a really powerful presence. It’s a unique kind of activism holding sensitivities and nuances of soft voices that can be repressed and hidden, yet vocalised through this medium. These are the voices that can bear witness to all of those individuals who might not have a voice elsewhere.

Thread Bearing Witness is at the Whitworth Gallery at the University of Manchester until 24 February 2019. www.threadbearingwitness.com

Stitch a Tree (detail) – full credit see page 49. Cotton and wool thread on linen, cotton, polyester and calico, size variable (2017–18)

Photograph: Joe Low

Resurgence & Ecologist

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