Wet::Dry::Stitch

Thinking Hands Viscera Poetics Layering

WET::DRY::STITCH asked us to imagine how hands think, especially when synced in collective, speculative work. Our ongoing process was the basis of a week-long exhibit in VCAM led by Trinidad-based, multi-disciplinary artist, Shannon Alonzo.

Shannon Alonzo :: Spring ‘25

RETURN TO PORTFOLIO

If our hands are thinking, how does that change our understanding of labor?

Shannon draped long stretches of calico from the second floor of VCAM. The fabrics draped across a set of tables and cascaded down into water basins. In workshop 1, Shannon led us through collective and continuous actions of mark making and erasing. We drew, and re-drew, with black and white charcoal and washed, and re-washed, our work in the washbasins.

from the pan yard to the calypso tent, from the carnival road to the backyard jam.

Working with charcoal, then washing, rinsing, shaking fabric dry, with one another, drawing again: all of this to unthink and relearn how speculating new modes of being can happen alongside each other.

As we worked with the fabric, its surface and the sediments of charcoal collected in the basins reminded us of the material and sensorial entanglements of past, present, and future and the role of embodied work in these layered temporalities. In workshop 2, we continued to build on this palimpsest, stitching new layers of dialogue on and into its narratives.

This was another way to experience a palimpsest, not just as layers to be witnessed, but as performances, rituals in common to be felt through.