ABSTRACT
The darning stitch is hard to pin down, as many methods of adorning and altering cloth wear the term darning. A darning stitch threads into an existing piece of fabric, but unlike embroidery techniques that move in all directions, darning stitches follow a textile’s structure. An over-exposed black and white photograph of two white-collared men is printed on white linen, and yellow, orange and blue threads are cross-stitched over parts of the image in different compositions. The warp and weft of the darned thread rely on each other for support. The stitch stresses that an urge to repair is a start, an end—that each step requires careful consideration of the existing fabric. Weaving one strand into another, darning allows for the rereading of architecture in thread. In these images, Lee looms over models of the Chapel Square Mall and the Knights of Columbus Tower.
