Mining Mending: rethink, reuse, revive
Virtual Exhibition
Joan Mondale Gallery • April 18 – July 22, 2023
Mining Mending: reuse, rethink, revive incorporated a series of exhibitions and supporting programs that focused on the contemporary use of mending and repurposed materials as the conceptual and technical basis for artistic practice. By employing stitching with conceptual and structural integrity, using recycled materials as art supplies, patching with purpose, and honoring of labor through repair, repurposing, and renewal, the powerful message and act of restoration and rejuvenation through mending serves as bold and timely means to express a broad range of positions.
Mining Mending, the main exhibition of the program, engaged a cohort of internationally recognized artists to come together to exhibit, teach, and talk about mending as both physical process and metaphor. Addressing topics from healing practice to social practice, to economic and environmentally informed practice, and to building and maintaining bridges to textile traditions, this exhibition and supporting programs continues our investment in new relationships to strengthen our fiber art community.
“What an incredible opportunity to pull threads, so to speak, from so many different communities on myriad perspectives of what mending is and represents. The mending movement is resilient and vital, remains relevant, and continues to expand–seemingly exponentially these days,” shares Tracy Krumm, Textile Center’s Director for Artistic Advancement. “What Textile Center is presenting is a diverse, thoughtful, and compelling series of exhibits and events that merit close inspection and reflection. From the nostalgic to the practical, to the bringing together of community, there is something to appreciate and be inspired by for everyone.”
Other exhibitions in the program included Resurgence: Revival of Indian Embroidery with Asif Shaikh, The Collective Mending Sessions, and Vintage Kantha.
Our Mining Mending: reuse, rethink, revive program is supported by a Creative Support for Organizations grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
(Featured image: Mended Pastry Bag, Celia Pym, Mining Mending)
Individual Artists
Acts of Fortification 1-5
Amy Meissner
Inherited crocheted doilies, vintage wool
Darning
$2,500
The Agony of Letting Go
Brooks Harris Stevens
Cotton, linen, rayon, wool, acrylic and metallic ribbons
Obsessive machine tufting
$4,000
Connective Space
Brooks Harris Stevens
Black bodysuits custom made for each pair of women, gold thread, photographs
Stitched gold threads binding the bodysuits together
Photographed at Frog Park, Ypsilanti, Michigan
$9,000
Amends 3
Mark Newport
Cotton, wool
Mending, embroidery
$12,000
Amends 4
Mark Newport
Cotton, wool
Mending, embroidery
$12,000
Sleeve 2
Mark Newport
Sleeve, cotton thread
Mending, embroidery
$5,000
Tuck 4
Mark Newport
Shirt fragment, cotton thread
Mending, embroidery
$5,000
Repair 4
Mark Newport
Fabric, cotton thread
Mending, embroidery
$5,000
Once Upon a Time:
Volume III, With Gaping Maw
Winnie van der Rijn
Repurposed menswear, ingenuity, thread
Hand stitching, folding, manipulating, ironing, controlling
$1,500
Once Upon a Time:
Volume IV, XX/Biological Warfare/Stratagems for Dismantling the Patriarchy/They’ll Never See Us Coming
Winnie van der Rijn
Repurposed menswear, aggression, thread
Hand stitching, folding, manipulating, ironing, dominating
$2,000
Once Upon a Time:
Volume VI, What Remains When the Lies Are Washed Away?
Winnie van der Rijn
Repurposed menswear, soluble substrate, despair, thread
Deconstructing, creating, stitching, folding, containing, dissolving
$1,500
Please Rate Your Experience
Lisa Kokin
Fiber, synthetic felt, linen, found textiles, sewing notions, aluminum, thread
Machine and hand embroidered
$15,000
Territory
Lisa Kokin
Mixed media textiles, found objects, thread
Machine and hand embroidered
$25,000
Clothes for the Commons: Speculative Garment #1
Rachel Breen
Used shirts, thread
Sewing
My “Speculative Garment Series” involves reassembling used garment parts into multi-limbed, multi-collared garments to be worn by a group of people. This is a functional garment for the future we can imagine.
Clothes for the Commons: Speculative Garment #2
Rachel Breen
Used shirts, thread
Sewing
meek/weak
Catherine Reinhart
Found quilt block, thread, wood, paint
Hand stitching, embroidery, mending
NFS
Sketch XVI
Catherine Reinhart
Found quilt blocks, thread, string, canvas
Stitching, sewing, thread painting
$640
