Cross-stitch embroidery on acrylic panels and freehand embroidery on welded wire mesh, using fabric yarn in various colours.

What can embroidery do? Produce knowledge, cultivate relationships, and assert itself as a technology. Historically associated with the domestic realm, this know-how is expanded here beyond the hoop — the structure that stretches the fabric — to reach the scale of life. A central element in Rick Rodrigues’ practice, the house moves beyond the idea of refuge to evoke the struggle for housing and the collective practices of building and inhabiting. As in so many communities, where homes are built through shared effort, the installation, created with the public, expresses the power of collective making.