Thea Moston utilises the transformative qualities of fabric to explore the retention of memory and form. In this work, she reflects on her experience living in a narrowboat community as a model of resilience, shaped by a continual negotiation of space. Moston is a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and a recipient of an RSA 2025 John Kinross Scholarship.

 

Through the process of fabric steaming (Shibori), her method traces the negative space within open lacework. By pushing and manipulating a material through the lace, she encourages the fabric to bend under the steam’s heat and enclose into stiffened forms. The result emerges as a rhythmic outgrowth of the original pattern, resisting the steam press’s impulse to flatten, pat down and smooth. In calling back to domestic and craft practices, Moston’s work maps an imprint of pressure and adaptation.