Threads is a participatory textile project lead by local artists Abi Wheeler and Carol Ann Eades. The work, commissioned by Ryde Arts in partnership with Ryde Library is being made at a time of transition in Ryde; against a backdrop of regeneration planning. As key stakeholders for the town debate it’s future, the work centralises the individual and collective voice of the inhabitants.
The 2011 census data has informed the structural design and content of a three dimensional hanging that will become part of the library’s permanent collection. The sixty-two subsets of Ryde’s five wards are represented by shapes taken from maps that visually define each local area. Each individual resident is represented by one stitch.
Workshops have been underway in Shibori and rust dyeing, producing fabric suggestive of the sea and beach that outline the north coast of Ryde. In Slow Stitch drop in sessions, additional participants have been creating symbolic maps of the town.
abiwheeler 