Crafting Cloth as Protest: Textiles and the Visual Culture of Philippine Social Movements

This essay explores contemporary adaptations of traditional textile practices in the visual culture of Philippine social movements. It revisits the author’s personal experience and engagement in advocacy projects adapting textiles and/or their motifs as materials, to remember feminist histories and assert solidarity with indigenous peoples and grassroots communities. It connects these moments of production to the material histories of contemporary banners made by Philippine cultural organisations produced and circulated before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In weaving through examples, this presentation delves into the social life of things sewn, stitched, patched, quilted, painted, attached, and carried for a common cause. It reflects on the processes and products of craft as cultural work, which contribute to a broader history of objects of demonstration” (1aspace, 2002–04), “disobedient objects“ (V&A Museum, 2014), and “warm bodies” (CFA, 2024) across and beyond Southeast Asia.