Traces: Stories of Migration

Lucy Orta’s Portrait Gallery is comprised of forty-seven portraits of local residents from East London using textile and textile crafts as a medium. The portraits were created in response to a two-year community engagement project entitled Traces: Stories of Migration, as a means through which the human condition is discussed, shared, and expressed collectively.

During the community engagement phase of the project (between 2021 and 2023), 70 residents from the boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets took part in a seven-week programme of creative workshops that encouraged storytelling, experimental textile design, sharing craft heritage and reciprocal learning. The key aim was to engage cross culturally through the topic of migration, recognising the creative value of diversity through peoples lived experience and support underrepresented people's ideas and visibility. Each migration story was different, yet participants found themselves connected through the threads of experience; coming to terms with the physical act of abandoning, the psychological and emotional impact of the move, the indelible marks left as a consequence of the uprooting – the leaving behind of loved ones and familiar surroundings that can lead to feelings of displacement and disorientation; the gradual adjustment to new a new culture, new friendships, raising a family, discovering a new meaning of home.

The workshop activities supported the realisation two key outcomes, A) ‘Story Cloths’ - 64 original 2D and 3D textile artefacts created by each of the participants. B) Lucy Orta’s ‘Portrait Gallery’ - a likeness of each participant crafted into a portrait using a technique developed during the process, namely embroidery-applique in organza fabric to depict the characteristics of each person. The portrait is framed by an interpretation of the participant’s Story Cloth using different textile techniques digital print, hand and machine embroidery, crochet, stencil.

Secondary outcomes include a book of poetry, documentary film and photography, a catalogue with critical essays and an evaluation report. The project concluded with two public facing exhibitions in East London: Nunnery Gallery (2 June – 27 August 2023) and LCF, UAL East Bank (2 October 2023 – 19 January 2024).

• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/9...
• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/9...
• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/video/46/...
• https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-c...
• https://bowarts.org/event/lucy-orta-trac...
• https://poplarworks.co.uk/programmes/mak...