KEEP IN TOUCH 2025
September 2025, in partnership with Gasworks Creative Precinct, I presented ‘Keep in Touch’; a 6 week craft art exhibition featuring a visible mending workshop and a social dinner in the gallery. The project targeted people experiencing loneliness in the City of Port Phillip and beyond.
As a medium and practice, craft art can be profoundly connective for artists and communities. Seeing as last year the WHO classified loneliness as a ‘global public health concern’ there’s no time like the present to interrogate loneliness and peoples sometimes fraught relationship to the sensation.
‘Keep in Touch’ included:
A craft art exhibition featuring local emerging artists visually exploring loneliness through their own experiences.
Participating Artists: Louise Samuelsson, Sam Kariotis, Alana Davis, Anselma Forlano, Jorja Timms, Amelia Dowling, Sydney Sydney
Exhibition Opening: Wednesday, 24 September
Two free visible mending workshops, teaching basic embroidery and visible mending techniques. Participants were encouraged (for sustainability, as well as materiality) to use their own, or friends/family clothing.
A social dinner presented in the gallery amongst the artwork, where participants came alone but left having made new connections over food and art. The tablecloth was also a participatory artwork.
‘Keep in Touch’ aimed to create environments and opportunities for people to share feelings and strategies about loneliness in an attempt to foster more connection.
This project was funded by the City of Port Phillip Cultural Development Fund
It comes and goes in waves (Louise Samuelsson, To be held (Louise Samuelsson)
The Great Red Bear (Anselma Forlano), Quietude (Alana Davis), Settlement (Sam Kariotis)
Quietude (Alana Davis), Sad in Svalbard (Jorja Timms, Anselma Forlano), Poetry Pile (Sydney Sydney), Friendship Bracelet (Louise Samuelsson)
It comes and goes in waves, Louise Samuelsson
Motto (methodology and praxis), Anselma Forlano
Intimacy | Estrangement, Amelia Dowling
Repair | Rupture, Amelia Dowling
What we whispered | What we screamed, Amelia Dowling
Settlement, Sam Kariotis
Settlement, Sam Kariotis
Settlement, Sam Kariotis
Reward when found, Louise Samuelsson
Friendship Bracelet, Louise Samuelsson
Poetry Pile, Sydney Sydney
To be held, Louise
To be held, Louise
The Great Red Bear, Anselma Forlano
Sad in Svalbard, Jorja Timms, Anselma Forlano
Quietude, Alana Davis
The Basket, Anselma Forlano
Visible Mending Workshop
20 people participated in two free visible mending workshops. Each person was taught basic stitches and three different ways of visibly mending their clothes - patching, darning, and satin stitch
The Keep in Touch Social dinner was a way for people to build new connections over food and art. Participants enjoyed a three‑course dinner served in the gallery, and a participatory artwork in the form of a colouring-in table cloth.
image credit: Raagini Ram
Social Dinner