Threads of Memory, Ties of Place

An immersive exhibition for Irish Design Week 2025

Threads of Memory, Ties of Place is a multisensory exhibition presented at The Fumbally Stables as part of Irish Design Week 2025. It explores how design connects us across generations, geographies, and disciplines—while also weaving in the personal link of love and family.

The exhibition features around thirty handmade pieces, including knitwear and Aran-style blankets, created using traditional stitches that embody Irish heritage. These works are displayed in unusual suspended forms, transforming the space into a labyrinth where visitors can move among the garments. The installation invites audiences to touch the intricate textures, encounter the raw scent of wool from Ventry, Co. Kerry, and experience knitwear as something immersive rather than purely visual.

The sensory journey expands through sound and image. Dublin-based independent electronic music producer Cormac Sugrue will perform live, creating electronic soundscapes that interact with the textiles. Projected visuals will feature archival material: Kerry landscapes filmed by the Sugrue family in the 1950s–80s, and photographs of Dublin fashion and street life from the 1940s–50s, taken by Cormac’s grandfather. These images connect past and present, rural and urban, memory and design.

Love is another link. Through marriage, Cormac’s family became my family, bringing me to Ireland and to the wool of Ventry. This personal bond grounds the project in lived connection.

Ultimately, Threads of Memory, Ties of Place is a celebration of interconnectedness: between craft and innovation, memory and material, past and future, and above all, the ties of love that link us.