held in the hours

26 September - 18 October 2025, Sydenham International, Sydney NSW

Held in the hours is a fifty-hour durational performance using a 1970s Singer 20U industrial sewing machine once belonging to Salwa, a skilled dressmaker. Drawing on professional drills, embodied knowledge, and overlooked histories of women’s textile labour, the work traces the precision and endurance of stitching as both craft and record. Lines accumulate across silk organza, revealing not only the hum of the machine but the strain, fatigue, and persistence of the body behind it. I place myself as an apprentice in this lineage of women’s work.

Held in the hours will be performed on Saturdays and Sundays during the exhibition, between 12-5pm, with closing event on Sat 18 Oct 3-5pm.