Ar Y Gweill, 2025
Group Exhibition “Unbroken” 2025, The Wrong Biennale
For more see here : https://liberationcollective.net/unbroken/karina-geddes/
In this work, artist Karina sought to create an artefact employing techniques historically practiced by working-class women, methods characterised by endurance, care, and intentionality. Drawing from artefacts in the Amgueddfa textiles collection, she reinterpreted motifs and patterns found in utilitarian objects such as needle sheaths, women’s pockets, samplers, and quilts. To the artists these everyday items, often produced out of necessity, embody care, artistry and mindfulness of the women who owned them, qualities increasingly at odds with the accelerated pace of contemporary life.
The piece also functioned as a means for Karina to reflect on her own position as a working-class individual pursuing a career in the arts, and on her choice to work with a medium historically imposed upon women from similar socio-economic backgrounds. The textiles referenced within the work offer intimate insights into the lives of working-class women, underscoring the extent to which textile-making was embedded within their daily routines and personal identities. Given the historical marginalisation of these women's creative contributions, Ar y Gweill operates as a form of class-based recognition and celebration.
Karina elected to document both the work and its making process in a format reminiscent of short-form video commonly circulated on social media platforms. While she acknowledges the benefits of accessibility and visibility that such platforms offer, she found that this format compromised essential aspects of textile practice. Textiles are inherently tactile, process-oriented, and often communal; these factors are central to their impact. The translation of these qualities into a digital, time-constrained medium proved reductive. Additionally, the necessity of self-recording introduced a performative dimension that conflicted with Karina’s broader artistic methodology, which typically centres on observation, traditional techniques, and the natural world, often with a deliberate de-centring of the human subject.
This is not intended as a critique of the innovative and meaningful work of female and queer performance artists who have successfully utilised filmic methods to share their practices online. Rather, Karina's experience underscores the limitations of dominant digital exhibition models, particularly in relation to traditional practices. This realisation has led her to begin exploring alternative forms of digital presentation that more closely align with the values and processes fundamental to her work.
The womens pocket (which can be seen being made in the video) was exhibited in The Wearable Art Show in October 2025
