Angeles Jacobi, ‘When Ends Meet’ 2024; durational textile Installation; cotton, ink, motorised mechanism spools; photo: Sara Lindsay

Sara Lindsay reflects on a poignant textile installation that unravels knitted images of home.

Over the last six years, I have made regular visits to Portugal in order to participate in artist residencies. In Lisbon, I have formed a strong bond with the organisation ‘A Avó Veio Trabalhar’. Translated as ‘Grandma went to work’, it is a creative hub for people over 60, functioning under the umbrella of textile-based projects. I have slowly been collecting stories from the people who work there, whether from 88-year-old Rosario, who had to flee her village because of an abusive husband or the many women from former Portuguese colonies who left during the wars of independence. And then, there is the series of adventurous young people from all over the world who spend time assisting with projects as part of their Erasmus year. Where people come from and where they may be going is a constant part of conversation, with increasing emphasis on the housing problem in Lisbon and elsewhere.

With this in mind, I was captivated by the eloquent and elegant textile installation by Argentinian artist Angeles Jacobi, which was exhibited as part of Contextile 2024, the Contemporary Textile Art Biennial held in the northern Portuguese city of Guimarães. Jacobi was one of nine artists who were selected to take part in the Biennial’s artist-in-residence program. For a period of one month, they had the opportunity to work alongside each other and with members of the local community. An exhibition of their work made during this time was held at a former hospital, which had also functioned as their studios. Unlike the clean, crisp spaces of the galleries showing the large international exhibition and that of the invited artist, the hospital was slightly shabby and redolent with a sense of history and memory: one of the attendants had been born there. As the daughter of a nurse, I moved with ease and intrigue from space to space, conjuring up images of what the building’s former life may have been.

Angeles Jacobi says she uses the process of knitting and its subsequent unravelling to create art that ‘does not exist to endure but to transform…it speaks of time, inevitable change and the fragility that defines our existence.’ She arrived in Guimarães with 20 metres of white knitted fabric, with the idea that she would handprint an image onto the fabric during her residency. It was through several meetings with the members of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Guimarães (a residential home for the elderly) that she developed the simple yet powerful image of a red house. Inspired by the stories told by the residents, who had had to leave their houses to be cared for, and many of whom had moved to the city from the country to find work in their youth, Jacobi encourages us to reflect on home, memory, separation and reconnection.

This reflection was made eminently possible by the location and structure of the final artwork, titled ‘When Ends Meet’. Two pieces of fabric, each measuring 10 metres in length, are suspended from the ceiling, forming a corridor or maybe a timeline. Natural light filled the space during my visit. The small red houses, printed along the centre of each fabric, shone vibrantly as I walked the length of the room. At the end of the room, a small motorised mechanism was connected to the thread of both pieces and, with a slow circular movement, unravelled the knitted thread whilst winding it onto a collection of black plastic spools. As each spool was filled, they were placed on a set of shelves and replaced with an empty one. The thread that was wound onto the spools had a soft flicker of red appearing as if marking the residue of people’s former homes and lives, and the clicking sound of the winding mechanism produced a metronome-like quality, alerting us to the passing of time. By the end of the exhibition I imagine that each spool would have been filled and the fabric completely unravelled, but with the material presence of the yarn on the spools calling forth the possibility of a new life ahead.

Visiting biennials, with their plethora of visual material and topics of discussion, can be overwhelming. This edition of Contextile focussed on the theme of ‘TOUCH’. It was through this exhibition of artists in residence, and in particular through the thoughtful and evocative installation of Angeles Jacobi that I was touched the most.

Follow @angeles.jacobi @avoveiotrabalhar @cortex.frontal and @contextil_biennial.

About Sara Lindsay

Sara Lindsay is an artist, educator and curator living in Naarm (Melbourne). She spends her time working with communities in Melbourne and Portugal whilst continuing to pursue a solitary studio practice making drawings and small minimal tapestries. Her exhibition “Obrigada=Thankyou” was recently shown at Studio Seco in Lisbon. In 2025, she will return to Portugal to continue her work with A Avó Veio Trabalhar and to undertake a two-month residency at Cortex Frontal. Follow @slindsay.studio.

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Argentina | decay | exhibition | Portugal | Sara Lindsay | textiles