Community Snake Banner and The Workshop video

During the pandemic, Feral Fabric chose the snake as a symbol of creativity, healing, regeneration, and rebirth for a community banner commissioned by Berkeley Art Center.

The body of the snake is comprised of panels sewn by participants working at home from kits supplied by Feral Fabric as part of a socially distanced art-making project. Feral Fabric distributed free craft kits (in person at the Art Center and via local delivery), then held an optional virtual workshop during which participants made panels that were later combined into the banner.

Over 30 participants contributed to the project, including school children, local artists, neighbors, residents of assisted housing, and people experiencing homelessness.

I edited the workshop recording with other elements to create The Workshop, a video which played behind the glass window in the lobby of the Art Center alongside the banner installation. The aesthetics of the video combine a surreal mixture of public access television, green screen special effects, hands-on craft workshop, and academic slide lecture.

Snake Banner
41 x 3.5’ (1250 x 106cm)
Commissioned by Berkeley Art Center
2020

> View this project on BAC website

> Feral Fabric: Paulina Berczynski and Amanda Walters



The Workshop. Running time 6:26, 2020