Mending Clinic
- Artist: Cloth Care Collective
- Medium: Interactive Installation
- Project Type: Independent Projects
- Neighbourhood: Etobicoke
“Mending Clinic” is an artist-hosted space dedicated to repair. Patients receive individual care and guidance to mend their garment in a quiet and empowering environment. Register online for an appointment.
Location
Humber College Lakeshore Campus, L-Building Study Labs
- Address: 19 Colonel Samuel Smith Park
- Public Washrooms: Yes
- Physical Access: Wheelchair accessible
- Indoors/Outdoors: Indoors
The Project
"Mending Clinic" is a space for communion, guidance, teaching and care. Serving patient and garment, the Clinic fosters empathy and dissolves the presumed dominion of human bodies over cloth. Consider cloth as a skin. Permeable, with the potential for repair. A membrane, holding things between interior (vulnerable) and exterior (rough) spaces. Mending tends to moments of fracture, recognizing them as opportunities for transition. It honours disintegration by providing a platform for self-healing; a collaboration between body and cloth. "Mending Clinic" is run by the Cloth Care Collective. Participants can book appointments as well as bring their damaged garments to the clinic. Appointments begin with a consultation, discussing how the wound formed on the cloth. Artists prescribe a repair approach based on the patient’s skill level and the needs of the garment. The artist begins the mend, teaching the technique as they work. Participants take their garment with them to finish the mend.
The Artist
The Cloth Care Collective builds community through the intimacy of care. They commune through research and material investigations into mending, women’s work, body-cloth-space relationships, and the politics of craft. The Collective’s goal is to disseminate repair skills with communities to encourage sustainable textile maintenance, shifting ideologies surrounding consumption and waste.