Artist's Notes: The Architecture of Repair Series

There is a point at which survival alone is no longer enough.

The crisis may still be unfolding. The uncertainty may remain unresolved. The pressures that created the strain may not have disappeared. Yet life continues to ask for participation. There are meals to prepare, conversations to have, responsibilities to meet and a world that expects us to keep moving forward.

The works in The Architecture of Repair emerged from that space.

Created from hand-worked felted wool and held together through countless individual stitches, these pieces explore repair not as a destination, but as an ongoing practice. They consider the structures we build in response to prolonged emotional strain and the ways we continually reinforce ourselves in order to keep going.

Unlike many of the works in this exhibition, the forms within this series were not consciously planned as representations of repair. They emerged instinctively through the process of making. Looking back, I can see that the repeated acts of stitching, binding and reinforcement were reflecting something I could not yet fully articulate. The forms seemed to understand what I was experiencing before I did.

At the time, I was living alongside circumstances that demanded constant adaptation. The emotional landscape was one of uncertainty, vigilance and endurance. Making became a way of remaining present within that reality. The repetitive nature of the work offered a rhythm through which difficult emotions could be processed and contained, even when solutions remained out of reach.

The Architecture of Repair I: She Stitched Her Way Through reflects this experience most directly. The work speaks to the quiet labour of continuing when no clear path exists. Every stitch contributes to the integrity of the whole, suggesting that resilience is often built incrementally through countless small acts rather than singular moments of transformation.

In contrast, The Architecture of Repair II: Composure Was Its Own Labour considers the structures we develop in order to re-enter the world. If the first work inhabits a private space of rebuilding, the second explores the more public act of presentation. Layered and reinforced, the form evokes the versions of ourselves we construct to navigate daily life while carrying experiences that remain largely unseen by others.

Together, these works acknowledge that repair is rarely complete. It is not a fixed state that is achieved and left behind. Instead, it is a continual process of maintenance, adaptation and renewal. We strengthen what has been tested. We reinforce what remains vulnerable. We learn to carry what cannot yet be put down.

The title of the series reflects this understanding. An architecture is not a single component but an entire system of support. In the same way, repair is not one action but a collection of practices, habits and acts of persistence that allow us to continue.

These works are not concerned with perfection or resolution. They are concerned with endurance. They ask what we build when circumstances require us to keep repairing the framework of our lives, and how those structures — visible or invisible — make it possible to move forward.