3rd October 2024

COMMON THREADS Workshop / 575 Wandsworth Road x Battersea Arts Centre

Happy to share I’ll be working with the team at 575 Wandsworth Road to deliver a workshop at Battersea Arts Centre for their Common Threads programme, inspired by the current textile collection at the house through upcycling accessories in a fresh & accessible way.

Kenyan-born poet, novelist & civil servant, Khadambi Asalache bought the house at 575 Wandsworth Road back in 1981 whilst working at the Treasury, and spent 19 years from 1986 turning his home into a work of art, through extensive fretwork patterns & motifs, which he hand-carved from reclaimed pine doors & floorboards salvaged from local skips…all started because of a persistent damp issue in the basement dining room which he tried to fix & cover up, without looking like an eyesore.

Khadambi left the house to the National Trust on his death in 2006 to ensure that it would be looked after & shared with a wider audience. During my initial visit to this gem of a place, I was taken back by the level of craftsmanship from someone who had no formal training in carving & was entirely self-taught, not using paper / pen to plan designs, just proceeding to draw directly onto the wood, leaving a sense of rawness, feeling out the process as he went on to design the entire house – something to which I can relate to in my own practice.