Texere

Stories shape societies, just as societies create stories. Since 2016, we have been plunged deeper into a post-truth world, where fiction and reality blur, fueling mistrust and fracturing socio-political structures. Conflicting narratives and fragmentation add to our confusion, making the way we interpret, internalize, and act on information more crucial than ever. Culture and creative platforms are vital in bridging these gaps—sparking debate, fostering expression, and offering new ways to process today’s flood of (mis)information.

Artists play an essential role in addressing the fractures and imagining alternatives. Texere, a collaboration of five artists at the Royal College of Art, explores a world in tatters through a pentaptych, five panels stitched together. The panels consider the impact of fragmentation on five separate themes: personal, memory, nation, media, and history. Weaving our narrative threads seeks to counter divisive fragmentation, in search for social cohesion – an act of protest at a time when the growth of populist narratives is being used to divide and distract us from the international collaboration we need to address societal issues.

The final outcomes achieved through our project were:

1. Five individual artworks represent each artist’s own exploration and reaction to the theme of fragmentation.
2. An invitation for engagement where RCA Kensington campus students were solicited to produce their responses and reactions to fragmentation presented in the artist’s works.
3. The physical construction of the kiosk, which involved attaching the five artworks together using poster board and fabric tape.
4. A digital AR mock-up concept of the kiosk to help visualise the final project in a digital/larger space.