Walking Alongside the Arpilleras

Threads of Life

I joined this trail in 2009 when Roberta Bacic, Curator of Conflict Textiles, brought ‘Threads of Life’ to Liverpool’s Irish Festival. This was an exhibition of Irish quilts and Latin American arpilleras that Susan Beck and I used as a catalyst for 20 textile workshops. 

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We met with community groups, a refugee group, Irish centres, a junior school and the hosting museum. Repeatedly we saw the power of fabric, the pull to rummage through and choose the right piece for a scene or figure. The absorption of hand stitch, spontaneous sharing of joyful and heart-breaking stories. It was a two-way process, we learnt from the conversations and skills too, like making traditional dress for the figures. 

Family drop-in workshops focused on making a figure of someone special. The ‘Threads of Life’ hanging shows 73 figures made by children, mums, dads and grandparents. Another 40 figures went home with their makers, too precious to leave with us. Each one had its style and a story tag attached. There were figures to remember loved ones, best friends, inspiring people. 

Other groups made arpillera scenes of special times and places. The ‘Granby Soft Furnishing Group’ produced pieces including childhood and birth in Liverpool, weddings in Africa and Vegas, and memories of Algeria and Somalia.

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Following the Thread

We mounted the work of the 160 individuals and it was shown in the ‘Following the Thread’ exhibition at World Museum Liverpool in 2010. Roberta Bacic asked us to make an arpillera of our own that reflected the whole experience. 

The workshop participants lived in Liverpool but had contact with a least 17 other countries, a number of languages were spoken. There were lots of mothers with young children, women who had come to settle from Ireland in the 50s and 60s, recently arrived refugees and school children. It made Susan and I think about Liverpool’s history as a city and seaport. We felt strongly that Liverpool is not its iconic buildings, terraced housing or the river. It is the people who live in any city that make it what it is and they should all be celebrated. 

The People Make the City

We came up with an idea and a sketch that turned into ‘The People Make the City’. The figures on that arpillera are working together and represent the groups we saw, each is literally stitching to make the city.

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Life With and Without Bees

I kept in contact with Roberta Bacic and stitchers within the Conflict Textiles network. In 2014 I made an arpillera to promote awareness of bee decline from pesticide spraying.  ‘Life With and Without Bees’ depicts my own family, back garden, apple tree and fruit bushes. It shows both abundant life with bees and the threat to life without bees. My garden, city and country but also a topic anyone anywhere could identify with. 

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Visitors to ‘Threads of Empowerment’ in Belfast will join our textile trail and walk alongside the arpilleras here. Drawn in by the impact of colour, texture and visual imagery they will take the powerful impact of the stories in this show away with them on their own journeys.