On Mending - Celia Pym

Celia Pym is a London-based artist who has been exploring damage and repair in textiles since 2007. Working with garments that belong to individuals as well as items in museum archives, she has broad experience with stories of damage, from moth holes to accidents with fire.

She is an Associate Lecturer in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London.

Pym’s tools are scissors, yarn and a sharp needle. “Darning is small acts of care and paying attention. The damage, in a way, does the work for me” she explains. “I respond to it. The mending is slow work to hold the damage in place.” Her work has been exhibited internationally most recently in Waste Age, The Design Museum, London (2021) On Happiness: Tranquility and Joy, Wellcome Collection, London (2021) Siblings, Trading Museum, CDG, Paris (2020), Sewing Box for the Future, V&A Dundee (2020-21) and Material Matters, Textilmuseum, St Gallen (2020). In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize and the inaugural Loewe Craft Prize. Pym is a visiting lecturer in Mixed Media Textiles at the Royal College of Art, London. And On Mending is her latest book