David Medalla: A Stitch In Time - Light To Night
A Stitch in Time is the first in David Medalla’s series of participatory works. Since 1968, the artist has been inviting audiences around the world to collaborate in the making of the work by stitching a trace of themselves onto it. To mark its 50th anniversary, A Stitch in Time embarked on a new chapter in Singapore.
Paying homage to the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, a trio of blue, red and yellow fabrics journeyed into Singapore’s heartlands. Over six weeks, members of the public embellished them with stories inspired by casual greetings, the wish to remember and be remembered, and the reciprocity and dual role of the spectator as maker. This collaborative piece is displayed at the Gallery’s Coleman Street Entrance.
In the Auditorium Anteroom, a rainbow of coloured threads and needles dangles over an expansive white cloth. Audiences are similarly encouraged to sew their names, poems, images, or small keepsakes representing personal memories or impulses onto the cloth.
A Stitch in Time embodies the ongoing dialogue between the artist and his participants, specific to the different places that it has travelled to. While the artistic process has been the same over the past five decades, every stitched memento is unique, creating new stories wherever the work is exhibited.
The work was inspired by Medalla’s serendipitous encounter with a handkerchief at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, many years after he had given it away to an ex-lover at Heathrow Airport in London. Like the artist, A Stich in Time has continued its adventures in love, life and art around the world, travelling to cities from London to Utrecht, Kassel, Edinburgh, Texas, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Tokyo, Barcelona, Johannesburg, Kiev, Sao Paolo, Venice, and Rome. It represents the beauty and spirit of chance, fluidity, spontaneity, and randomness.
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A Stitch in Time is the first in David Medalla’s series of participatory works. Since 1968, the artist has been inviting audiences around the world to collaborate in the making of the work by stitching a trace of themselves onto it. To mark its 50th anniversary, A Stitch in Time embarked on a new chapter in Singapore.
Paying homage to the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, a trio of blue, red and yellow fabrics journeyed into Singapore’s heartlands. Over six weeks, members of the public embellished them with stories inspired by casual greetings, the wish to remember and be remembered, and the reciprocity and dual role of the spectator as maker. This collaborative piece is displayed at the Gallery’s Coleman Street Entrance.
In the Auditorium Anteroom, a rainbow of coloured threads and needles dangles over an expansive white cloth. Audiences are similarly encouraged to sew their names, poems, images, or small keepsakes representing personal memories or impulses onto the cloth.
A Stitch in Time embodies the ongoing dialogue between the artist and his participants, specific to the different places that it has travelled to. While the artistic process has been the same over the past five decades, every stitched memento is unique, creating new stories wherever the work is exhibited.
The work was inspired by Medalla’s serendipitous encounter with a handkerchief at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, many years after he had given it away to an ex-lover at Heathrow Airport in London. Like the artist, A Stich in Time has continued its adventures in love, life and art around the world, travelling to cities from London to Utrecht, Kassel, Edinburgh, Texas, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Tokyo, Barcelona, Johannesburg, Kiev, Sao Paolo, Venice, and Rome. It represents the beauty and spirit of chance, fluidity, spontaneity, and randomness.
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