For our January–February winter season of events, Palimpsest Projects continues with a series of four collage workshops led by four different London-based artists who use collage as a key technique in their art-making. Collage serves as a means to map different systems of knowledge, to create new stories and alternative narratives, or to playfully offer new possibilities.
With gratitude to Richmond Council's Civic Pride Fund, all participants of the public are warmly welcomed to freely attend and explore techniques of collage with us – these workshops require no experience and families of all ages may attend. You’ll learn more about each artist’s own creative practice and ways of collaging whilst also making your own collaged creations. You'll use a variety of materials and follow thoughtful prompts.
For each workshop, we encourage you to bring some of your own favourite personal materials that you may have at home – but otherwise, all workshop materials will be provided.
Workshop Location: the Richmond Library Annexe is a red-brick building that is easily entered 1-minute off of Richmond High Street. It is not the same building as Richmond Lending Library, but you may find the Annexe on the opposite side of the Lending Library – following the small alley next to the Library’s white cottage.
Workshop Leader
Christie Swallow is an artist and researcher who crafts new stories from old ideas. Their work engages with the entanglement of humans and non-humans within the anthropocene, seeking to disentangle the webs of meaning that weave through contemporary attitudes towards 'nature'. With a background in architecture, their practice works through textiles, co-creation, drawing, and archival research. Christie previously had undertaken residencies with the European Commission, The University of Birmingham, and Hangar CIA. They were the 2020 recipient of the RIBA Boyd Auger Award and previously studied at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art.
Supporting Facilitator
Gina DeCagna is the founder and director of Palimpsest Projects. Last season, she curated This Language Rematerialised (25 September – 20 October 2024) at One Paved Court Gallery in Richmond to launch Palimpsest's inaugural artistic activities, in which 8 contemporary artists showcased how they intervene in or rewrite cultural narratives – carving out their own distinctive paths. An artist, writer, and cultural producer, she had completed her MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Further Information
The word ‘palimpsest’ originates from the Greek word palimpsēstos, from palin ‘again’ + psēstos ‘rubbed smooth’. It historically has referred to a manuscript, tablet, or other writing surface where traces of earlier writing remain, despite the sections where it was erased, wiped clean, and reused. Today, the word ‘palimpsest’ can be used literally and figuratively to describe the complex and layered ways that contemporary culture builds and evolves. It is used across many different areas of research and social fields of knowledge – from architecture to literature.
We use ‘palimpsest’ as a thematic and conceptual jumping-off point in contemporary art and culture to explore the ways that all people can undo or rewrite particular power structures – which could have histories of excluding, erasing, and silencing. We are especially interested in how participants may wish to express their creativity and voices as a means of empowerment against historic, dominant narratives that may be outdated. We encourage overlooked voices, perspectives, and forms of knowledge to come into our forefront from any previously obscured or hindered positioning. You require no experience to participate in our projects, and we believe that everyone can be creative and have a meaningful place in our conversations.
We are grateful to the Civic Pride Fund of Richmond Council.