A handcrafted work. Emanations from a context of confinement

Abstract

This work reflects on the experience of an anthropologist and artisan coordinating textile experimentation workshops at Women's Penitentiary Unit No. 52 in the city of Azul, Buenos Aires, Argentina. These reflections stem from a premise derived from ethnographic observation: the prison possesses a power that is scarce outside—the availability of time, a symbolic and material element that is crucial to any creative artisanal process. Starting from the recognition of this particular context, the aim was to work transversally with local notions of handicrafts and art, as well as the affective and effective modes of production and circulation of the materials involved. From this shared time, these workshops yielded post-academic reflections that are both novel and ancient, based on the analysis of ways of experiencing textile handicrafts individually and collectively. A relational perspective of and from the affected materiality prevailed over the external legitimization of the craft. Thus, this text shares scenes that sparked collective reflections, surprises, and learning around the craft with two groups of women throughout 2024. Finally, it concludes that a work of craftsmanship can be the foundation of everyday practices that reconnect networks and environments in ways that are as unpredictable as they are substantial to the lived experience of mutual care.