patterns of life
Patterns of Life is a collaborative documentation project to research, digitise and rehouse a historic study collection of almost 200 South Asian textiles and objects at Platt Hall.
The collection was largely acquired during the 1990s, through donations and purchases from local shops in Rusholme, from textile collectors, and through curatorial research visits to India funded by the Costume Society. It comprises woven, printed and embroidered textiles, furnishings, garments, fragments and fabric lengths, and includes toys, kites, woodblocks, puppets, jewellery and ornaments, mostly from South Asia.
Over the past year this handling resource has been carefully documented, numbered, rehoused and photographed by a dedicated team of volunteers and gallery staff who are working collectively to understand the needs, cultural significance and creative potential of the collection today. The team has identified and recorded a range of textiles including Madras check, hand block-printed lengths, woven IKAT, hand embroidered garments, tie-dye fabrics, wax resist Indigo, and mirrorwork. The project aims to build local investment in and understanding of the collections at Platt Hall and to make this resource accessible for use in future programmes at the Hall and beyond.
‘For me, I think it's been so good to come and do something that is constructive. It's one of my days off. I'd say normally on my days off, I think, and especially this year, I've been trying just to really be calm. I'm always very go, go, go, go, go. That's great, but actually it's not always great. That was what I was looking for in a volunteering project. It was a mix of something interesting, but also something where I could take some time to be a bit slower and a bit more collected.”
“To be curious and feel safe, I think, for me, are massive things. It has probably had a really positive effect on my health. Again, I wake up in the morning on a Tuesday, and I sort of get quite excited to come down here and see what's going on and be a part of this conversation.”
Patterns of Life participant
Patterns of Life is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund Dynamic Collections grant and is part of Manchester Art Gallery’s Taking Stock programme.
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