Phoebe Videbeck

My practice is driven by the process of change, using the concept of palimpsest manuscripts to provide a lens to approach contemporary design. Palimpsest refers to an ancient process in which a manuscript was stripped of its original text and superimposed with new text, metaphorically used to describe something altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

Combining these ideas with my own family’s biographical objects and stories of immigration, the framework of the palimpsest provides a perspective of reuse and offers a method of thinking that recognises the complexities of objects and their accruement of meaning, positioning clothing as evolving and reflective narrative rather than pure commodity.

Garments cut from my dad’s old drop sheet - cyanotype printed, bleached and toned, and fully fashioned knitwear worked by hand on a 1970s domestic flatbed knitting machine. Embellishment is repurposed from various secondhand sources including pillows, garments, and bridal offcuts and individually inserted into the knit.