Seaming fragments: exploring patchwork and embodied research

This talk will connect practices of autoethnography, textile research and design practices, in a discussion about the role of embodied research. It will foreground my own positionality as a British-Canadian woman of the Korean diaspora in a decolonial reading of Korean womanhood through patchwork. Initially, we will focus in on the seam – the seam that connects two fragments composing the foundation of a patchwork cloth. Describing how my own experiences as a textile practitioner have shaped the lens of my research, I unpack how the structures of threads, fabric compositions and techniques reveal a rich material world of modernity encroaching upon Korea at the turn of the 20th century. It is from the interstitial space, that both postcolonial and decolonial theorists describe the borderlands of being, and knowing, which are mapped onto my own histories of diasporic belonging. From the material to the personal, this talk will explore both the object studies of my own research, as well as an overview of my pathways as a designer working in luxury fashion to academia.