The Remains of the Folk Era
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In The Remains of the Folk Era, I explore how women’s manual labor, everyday objects, and oral stories help preserve cultural memory across generations.
My focus is on rural Greek traditions, particularly the traditional female garments of regions like Central Macedonia, Epirus, and Thrace. My aim is to understand how textiles, garments, and heirlooms (such as dowries, aprons, and headscarves) function not just as material artifacts, but as carriers of emotional meaning, family history, and cultural identity.
The main outcome of my project is a large, human-sized wooden vessel, which I painted and decorated with tufted textile pieces inspired by folk patterns and traditional women’s crafts. Alongside it, I created three smaller tufted vessels that represent my own contribution to this cultural lineage, my way of adding to the ongoing chain of making and remembering.
Through material exploration, oral history collection, feminist theory, and participatory research, I examine how design can preserve, reinterpret, and communicate intangible heritage. My project asks: What kinds of cultural knowledge do we inherit through objects and stories, and how can we, as contemporary designers, help carry that knowledge into the future?
