Graduation project
spells and spindles – a ritual for mending stories
Toni Wagner
A participatory installation invites participants to repair garments, while collectively reflecting on their personal stories, as a way to fix their bodies.
Spells and Spindles is inspired by the untold history of female craft. A participatory installation of broken garments and shared stories facilitates a ritualized practice that situates maintenance as an act of transformation, agency, renewal, and care. Participants introduce and translate their own stories, becoming part of the collective thread of the space. Listening and valuing experiences through collective reflection allows the emotional mending of bodies that are broken or in need of healing. Semi-transparent and half-mended textiles layer representations of mended bodies and stories, while elements common to the domestic sphere are imbued with emancipatory potential.