The Patchwork Commons is a series of artist commissions which are entwined with and reflect on the wider programme of Seeding the Commons. More information on the completed commissions will be available here soon:
Entangled Roots: Wintering – an elegy and polemic on sisterhood, nature, home and belonging by Francine Hajilou
Building on the Entangled Roots programme, Francine has created an anthology of poetry and verbatim testimony, woven together in a radical and polyphonic format. The anthology will soon be available to purchase alongside the other Seeding the Commons publications.
Francine is an emerging writer from Folkestone, who engages with her own Caribbean heritage to scrutinise coalition as an act of integration between diasporic and indigenous communities.
Composting the Canon by Raju Rage
Raju Rage is an interdisciplinary artist who uses art, food, education and activism to forge creative survival. A creative educator and independent scholar with an interest in radical pedagogy, they engage with work around sustainability, economies, care, and resistance. Raju has a theirstory in activism, and collective organised queer/ transgender/ people of colour movements.
Developing Raju’s recent work ‘Recipes for Resistance’ and ‘Grow not Build’, they have created a body of content collated as a Zine, considering what will be needed to nourish the Commons, developed in response to discourse developed through the project.
Patchwork by Alise Kirtley
Musician, researcher and food activist Alise Kirtley was invited to reflect on the potentiality of the Patchwork Commons through music. Her song, Patchwork, is a hope-filled call to action, meditating on the connection between the body and the earth.
Alise Kirtley is the writer, performer and co-producer of Folkestone-based band The Bearing. She is also a member of Feeding Folkestone and coordinates the Folkestone Community Fridge, all the while working on a PhD with the UK Food Systems CDT.
Rudimentary Rhythms by Cherry Truluck with Helga Mendes Da Fonseca and Grace Gibbons
Rudimentary Rhythms was a feast and seed sowing ritual, co-supported by Delfina Foundation, London. It focused on oats as a model for exploring the role of time and space in a patchwork commons, championing an idea of rhythm as a unifying force. Conceived by artist Cherry Truluck, the event was created in collaboration with sound artist Helga Mendes Da Fonseca and chef Grace Gibbons.
Seed/Lemniscate by Zoe Palmer
Artist, writer and herbalist Zoë Palmer was invited to create an offering of rest and mindfulness, to form an central part of the Seed Gathering. She produced a sound work which integrated a meditation on the theme of the Seed. This was accompanied by a piece of creative writing which was included in the ‘Into the Wind with the Seeds’ zine, including a photographic work by artist gardener Will Gould.
Zoë Palmer is a writer, facilitator + herbalist whose work spans performance, installation, text + participatory events. Her regenerative practice explores our relationship with the more than human world. A natural beekeeper for 15 years, she’s currently growing a British African herbal garden. She was the founder of the dream(ing) field lab, a practice developed to co-create a sanctuary for joy, rest, communal care and nature connection for black women and femmes in response to climate breakdown.
The Patchwork Commons is accompanied by a series of one page mini-commissions from:
Another Provision
Em Ghassempour
The Artists Steering Group