On display at YSP Centre, Stitched Stories is celebration of a three-month project that took place as part of YSP’s Summer of Love in 2022.

Stitched Stories brings together 144 stories from visitors to the Park and is an acknowledgment that everyone’s story is unique and important. Throughout the exhibition On Queer Ground in the Bothy Gallery, textile artist Andi Walker held weekly sessions where they invited visitors to pause and share a memory from their lives. Whilst in conversation, the participant made marks with pencil on a piece of paper taped beneath the desk. Although hidden from view, these marks follow the path and rhythm of the story. The drawings are abstract visions which represent the stories and reflect the act of attentive listening.

Walker translated the outcomes from pencil marks into thread and fabric, carefully following the spiralling lines, dots and dashes of each work. The quilt, shown at YSP Centre alongside a selection of drawings, measures 2x2 metres, holds 144 stories and has used in excess of 5000 metres of thread. Sewn together into one beautiful whole, the quilt unites the individual stories to celebrate both difference and togetherness.

Andi Walker is a non-binary queer constructed textiles artist whose studio practice is deeply rooted in process. Walker’s work frequently challenges societal norms around gender and masculine femininities, exploring this through garment and stitched narratives.