Artist Reception & Free Drop-in Stitching Project

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Join us at the SF School of Needlework and Design for an Artist Reception and free drop-in stitching project inspired by the our current exhibition.

Liz Harvey 

the lost ones: iterations and murmurs 

In 2015, Harvey began to envision an interactive performance project to confront the catastrophic loss of plants due to human impact. In tandem with her endangered species research, Harvey drew inspiration from the autobiographies of two 19th-century British women, Marianne North and Mary Seacole, who traveled the world pursuing, applying, and preserving plant knowledge. To build the garment central to the piece, Harvey combined two patterns of 19th-century wedding dresses, creating a multi-panel surface onto which she transferred tracings of at-risk plants from countries marked by colonization. The garment functions as an archive of 38 rare or endangered plants from around the world, co-created with hundreds of participants.

To activate the piece, a performer wearing the dress slowly danced through parks and museums, their garment becoming a vessel for a mobile stitching circle. As participants embroidered the images of critically endangered plants, the stitchers learned about overlooked species, untold histories, and little-acknowledged art practices. 

Over the course of five years, twenty-six iterations of the lost ones project were performed – each evolving in response to the audience, location, and current events. Following the last performance in 2019, Harvey began the next phase of the project, responding to the community-stitched portions of the dress by filling in the remaining surface with line drawings created with green thread. Harvey draws on sound vibration imagery and spiritual abstraction as she creates embroidered marks that connect each crowd-embroidered plant image to another across the garment. the lost ones: iterations and murmurs is the first-ever comprehensive look at the process behind developing the five-year project, from early sketches of the project’s inception to the physical dress, thousands of community stitches later.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.