Holding Knowledge

In a global economy of fast fashion and late-stage capitalism, the idea of the handmade has become reified and sought after. Marked by the global dreams of the information age—which is, quite contradictorily, still heavily reliant on the mass manufacturing of computer and phone parts—the embodied cultural knowhow that is transmitted between generations has become increasingly valuable.

The importance of maintaining and revalorizing practices rooted in traditional artistic and craft techniques of analogue photography, embroidery, textile work, and printmaking is at the core of Holding Knowledge, a group exhibition curated by Manel Benchabane at Stewart Hall Art Gallery. Featuring the skilled handiwork and conceptually concise practices of Swapnaa Tamhane, Poline Harbali, Jeanette Johns, and Celia Perrin Sidarous, the exhibition weaves together cultural and familial narratives that resist the contemporary urge for globalized rapidity, easily consumable goods, and thoughtless doomscrolling.