Make-do and Mend

Make-do and Mend is Susan Stockwell’s fourth solo exhibition at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art. Taking its title from a familiar phrase associated with domestic craft, in particular in response to wartime rationing and shortages, this new body of work continues the artist’s exploration into the social and political histories embedded in commonplace objects that have outlived their initial purpose. With a free-standing dress sculpture constructed from obsolete banknotes Stockwell comments on the fragility of financial systems. Coffee stains tracing the outlines of colonial territories on vintage dressmaking patterns reference the instability of political and economic power. Meticulously embroidered moths covering the holes in an old bed blanket highlight nature’s response to accelerating ecological change. By mending and reassembling Susan Stockwell does not simply preserve objects and the histories they hold, but turns them into conduits for reflection and repair.