Sophie Qiaoyun Peng 1; 1 University of Glasgow, UK
Discussion
In this presentation, I will share some preliminary results from my ongoing art-research project “Hand-Work”, which is designed to explore the links between working hands, working people, and their work through lens of textile heritage-making process in Haapsalu, Estonia.
How do lace knitters narrate, relate, and present their identity within the heritage lace-making process? To answer this question, I employ two methods: (1) story-telling to collect lace-makers’ historical lived experiences; and (2) narrative analysis: to interpret the data collected from story-telling.
As the project title indicates, “Hand-Work” explores semiological links between the knitting-motion (“Hand”) and lace-knitting itself as a place-based Intangible Cultural Heritage (“Work”). I will explain how heritage craft shapes its native cultural landscapes in contexts of the Haapsalu case, and elaborate further how such mechanism may work as a model to inspire better practices in heritage crafts protection elsewhere beyond Estonia.
