Textile Legacies | Hannah Sabapathy

Dundee-based designer and artist Hannah Sabapathy is a practitioner who interrogates the power dynamics behind South Asian and British textile design history. In March, Hannah visited fellow City of Design Whanganui, New Zealand, for a month-long residency exploring the city's archives, collections, and creative communities.

Join Hannah for this talk as she discusses learnings from Whanganui, including research into tapa cloth (also known as bark cloth), harakeke (also known as NZ flax) and "bad specimens".

About the Speaker

Hannah Sabapathy is an artist and researcher based in Dundee. She trained as a printed textile designer, and uses pattern and a variety of materials to interrogate the power dynamics behind South Asian and British textile design history.

She is currently a Leeds Opportunity Research Scholar undertaking a practice-based PhD at The University of Leeds. Hannah’s series of fourteen vitreous enamel panels for the 20/20 Residency with The Decolonising Institute, University of Arts has been acquired by The Harris Museum Preston and are on display at the newly reopened museum. Other recent commissions have been a collaborative light projection of Kashmiri textiles from the Cultural Institute, University of Leeds for Leeds Light Night.

She has undertaken residencies at Hospitalfield, Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio, Cove Park, and The Harris Museum.

This talk is a part of Dundee Month of Design and Textile Legacies, a residency programme that connects indigenous and ancestral textile practices between Whanganui, New Zealand, and Dundee to foster meaningful cultural and creative exchange, coordinated by UNESCO City of Design Dundee and UNESCO City of Design Whanganui. It is supported by the British Council New Zealand and the Pacific’s Connections Through Culture Programme and Scottish Government’s Scottish Connections Fund.

Header Image: Hannah Sabapathy at Dundee Design Festival 2024, curated by Dr Stacey Hunter. Photography by Grant Anderson.

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Host or Publisher UNESCO City of Design Dundee