SEAT at the TABLE
The launch of a series of collaborations as ESEA unseen, using collective textiles making as a vehicle for the exploration of East Asian & Southeast Asian histories in London, and the inherited love language of food as a vehicle for connection.
Venue
Museum of the Home
Collaborators
@Swilipino
Lara Baclig
Year
09/09/2023
ESEA unseen shared stories of cross-cultural identity and migration in relation to textiles in the domestic space, and invited the audience to mark their seat at the table.
Workshop
Participants learnt basic techniques for textile making (using a sewing machine and experimental cross-stitching and patchworking), to create personalised placemats using discarded fabric, clothes and trimmings.
While making, participants shared their stories around diaspora identity and heritage that embedded into their textile. At the end of the session, we will collectively join the individual stories/placemats to create the first part of a wider tablecloth installation project by ESEA unseen.
Meal sharing
For many ESEA diaspora, “Have you eaten?” is an expression of care, and can easily replace “How are you?”. To celebrate the role of food in family dynamics, participants enjoyed Filipino-Swedish inspired dishes for lunch by chef Tintin aka Swilipino.
The plant-based menu included fried tofu (bubuk), kangkong and beansprouts (peanut sauce), tapioca crackers, pandan sticky rice cubes and pickled cucumbers.
How can the ESEA diaspora weave their stories and experiences into the fabric of history?
How can textile-making be a form of collective activism?
How can memories and stories within the domestic space occupy a larger history?
Seat at the Table is part of the ESEA Programme at Museum of the Home. The ESEA programme is generously funded by the Lien Viet fund by Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association.