PATCH WORK

WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE A strange and mesmerising piece of work Sunday Times An absolute masterpiece Laura Cumming An uncommon delight Observer Claire Wilcox has been a curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working life In Patch Work she turns her curator s eye to the fabric of life itself tugging at the threads of memory a cardigan worn by a child a tin button box the draping of a curtain a pair of cycling shorts a roll of lace a pin hidden in a seam Through these intimate and compelling close ups we see how the stories and the secrets of clothes measure out the passage of time our gains and losses and the way we use them to unravel and write our histories Effervescent poetic puzzle like Wilcox picks at the heartstrings Financial Times