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MFA Design

Ellen Solding

Patch-working (Or Nothing Ever Leaves the Island)

Patch-working deals with economics, labour, motherhood and craft. Through material practices the project forms a methodology that in its essence concerns sustainability and sustainable practices. The project poses a question of how motherhood can be a model for a different kind of modus operandi regarding questions ofresources and work.

The project proposes that motherhood is an island. Thinking of the island as a place of boundary and finite resources, drawing on the concept of archipelagic thinking, the project suggests that motherhood is a circular concept, a lonely practice and a rock to hold on to.

What we find out through out this project, is how mothering is not estranged from the realm of politics, masculinity and money, but rather a pillar that can uphold or rearrange such topics. In patch-working motherhood enters the stage as something deeply personal yet universal. It is the other narrative, the speculative present, a possible future. Through a trolley, an instruction, a sewing kit and a cushion this project forms a proposition of both material and methodological means that asks us to patch up our time and work as we go along, using the resources we have and borrowing what we need.

@ellensolding