PIECEWORK

PIECEWORK

Theatre Performance & Art Installation

UCC Theatre, Crawford College of Art & Design (MTU) & West Virginia University

Wed 4th / Thur 5th Dec, 7.30pm

Granary Theatre

PIECEWORK develops experimental pedagogies in Textile Art and Sustainability by bringing together students from West Virginia University (WVU), University College Cork (UCC) and Crawford College of Art (MTU) to engage in collaborative art and performance making related to local textile practices (Appalachian, Irish, Polish, Portuguese and others) and the ways in which textiles are “carriers of narrative, culture and social history” (Áine Kavanagh CCAD). The focus on sustainability introduced students to the impact of textile industries (the fashion industry is responsible for 8 – 10% of global greenhouse gases) and grassroots activism around thrifting / upcycling, circular economies, the mending movement and the ‘wear your wardrobe’ campaigns. All textiles used in PIECEWORK are second-hand, recycled, borrowed or from ‘deadstock.’

PIECEWORK has a particular focus on the gendered histories of hand textile practices in West Virginia and Ireland especially as they relate to economic challenge / poverty and rural life. It also focuses on how textiles of all kinds come to be lodestones for story, memory and senses of place and home.  Exploring these histories allows a contextualised artistic exploration of contemporary making through theatre performance and the installation  / activation of textile materials / sculptures. 

This collaboration has been made possible by the generous partnership of Pamela Hardesty (Head of Textiles, Crawford College of Art & Design MTU) and Beth Shorrock (Head of Farm to Fashion, West Virginia University).

Exhibition of Mapping Climate Change: The Knitting Map & The Tempestry Project, The Art Museum, West Virginia University Aug 19 - Dec 15, 2024

This collaboration came about through the current exhibition of Mapping Climate Change at The Art Museum, West Virginia University. Jools Gilson, one of the artists behind The Knitting Map was Artist in Residence at The Art Museum 14 – 18 Oct, 2024. 

Sharing Squares

6 Students each from UCC, Cork College of Art & Design and West Virginia University (18 students in total) were put into collaborative groups of 3, one from each institution and asked to share stories about a textile that was important to them. Out of these discussions, themes and ideas developed. Students in West Virginia and Ireland were then asked to each develop a “Sharing Square” - a 30cm square textile made from second-hand / re-purposed fabric that was to be gifted to the student partners in the other country. In Ireland, the Theatre students worked with CCAD Textile students to develop 6 squares which Jools then took with her to West Virginia in October. Whilst at West Virginia University, Jools met Beth Shorrock for the first time, and with the 6 Fashion students who were part of the collaboration. She then took their 6 sharing squares back to Ireland. Each collaborative group then found a way to bring these six small textiles together into one large textile. The West Virginia students finished theirs and shipped it to Ireland for this performance. This process performs gifting as integral to sustainable textile practices, as a way to develop and sustain community. You can view the Sharing Squares before and after the performance of PIECEWORK.

Experimental Learning Through Artistic Research

This project integrates teaching methodologies from Visual Art and Theatre through a three-way collaboration between Ireland and the US. Through this distinctive learning experience students have collaborated across an ocean and across the road (CCAD), as well as disciplinary divides; students have learned about textile practices in two geographic locations in part through autoethnographic study. Students have also had the opportunity to develop creative micro-strategies at local level which engage with textiles and sustainability. 

Beth Shorrock, West Virginia University (Fashion Design and Merchandising)

As a sustainable designer, Beth is extremely interested in ethical production, sustainable practices and the utilization of waste and surplus materials. Her expertise in textiles and sustainable fashion has led her to develop Farm to Fashion, a circular and sustainable approach to connecting fashion students to the origins of fiber production by collaborating with professors in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design. Beth is passionate about empowering her students to be independent thinkers equipped with the ability to discover who they are as designers, meeting future challenges and succeeding in their chosen field. Beth was recently featured in the book Sustainability and Social Change in Fashion (Bloomsbury 2019).

Pamela Hardesty, Crawford College of Art & Design (Head of Textiles)

Pamela’s education evolved from an academic focus on art theory at the University of Chicago, to fine art in textiles at the California College of the Arts. She has exhibited widely in glass, metal, paper, plaster, stone, cloth, and thread throughout Ireland and internationally, notably in London, Shanghai, Kaunas, Beijing, Krakow, Graz, Como, Helsinki, and Tokyo; with a 2018 solo exhibition in Norwich Cathedral, UK.  Her work is in many public collections, including the Office of Public Works and University College Cork. Pamela passionately promotes the culture of making and particularly of textiles practice, as a published writer, and as a lecturer instigating many exchange projects in textiles, particularly with Baltic universities; as founder of Cork Textiles Network; in her active years of Textiles Education and Research in Europe; and currently, as creator of annual CCAD MAKE Symposia since 2014, bringing eminent makers and academics to Cork for dialogue and connection.

Jools Gilson, University College Cork (Theatre)

Jools Gilson is Professor of Creative Practice in the Department of Theatre at UCC. She teaches theatre and movement practices as well as critical thinking / writing about dance, theatre and performance – how they are both an intelligence and a mode of enquiry. Her current artistic research is focussed on textiles and sustainability. Her practice is knotted, knitted and woven between the disciplines of visual art, writing and dance theatre; choreographies linked to ancient bog bodies and their textiles; 30,000 sewing needles hung from a gallery ceiling; stories about wars waged through embroidery. Recent publications include the peer-reviewed podcast Body Listening: Performative Writing, Choreography and Environment (Parse Journal 2024). Her work The Knitting Map (2005) is currently on exhibition in the Art Museum, West Virginia University as part of Mapping Climate Change: The Knitting Map & The Tempestry Project (Aug 19 – Dec 15, 2024).

Student Collaborators:

UCC Theatre Students:

Bella Fernandes Santos  

John Flynn

Kamil Gonia

Keeli Guilfoyle

Madeline Johns

Adele Poitrinal

Crawford College of Art (MTU) Textile Students:

Dee Cafferkey                                      

Hannah Morrison-Poulter           

Aine Kavanagh                                 

Lil Quinn                                      

Ruta Ivanauskaite                            

Sian Foley                                                 

West Virginia University Fashion Students:

Ayrella Armentrout 

Claire Davis

Bethany Mcclung 

Eric Pifer

Lucas Root

Emma Green