Anna König, Senior Lecturer in BA (Hons) Textiles Design at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) and member of Seam Collective, has launched her debut solo exhibition, Stitches, Patches and Glitches, showcasing a body of work grounded in mending, sustainable craft, and decades of creative practice.
The exhibition, currently running at ACEarts in Somerton, Somerset, until 22 August, comes after Anna was awarded the top prize at the gallery's open exhibition last year. The show has gathered notable industry coverage ahead of its run, featuring in the Crafts Council’s national event listings alongside features in the July/August print editions of Embroidery magazine and Evolver.
Featuring large-scale abstract stitched pieces, patchworks, and experimental paper collages, Stitches, Patches and Glitches brings together Anna's practical creative work with her long-standing academic research into repair, reuse, and the cultural history of textiles.
Anna’s re-engagement with hand stitch began over a decade ago alongside her academic research into mending. She delivered her first conference paper on the subject in 2012, well before "visible mending" emerged as a prominent movement in contemporary fashion and design.
Drawing inspiration from traditional Japanese repair techniques such as boro and sashiko, Anna’s work interrogates the intrinsic value of plain, functional "working" stitches and everyday materials over luxury textiles.
“When you routinely use vintage fabrics in your everyday life, repair simply becomes a quotidian activity,” explains Anna. “Some of my pieces are the direct outcome of garments repaired until they no longer functioned as gardening trousers. The fabric becomes a testimony to physical labour, with a nod to traditional mending techniques.”
Earlier this year, Anna joined Seam Collective, a curated network of textiles artists working across the South West of England who advocate for contemporary textiles practice through research, collaboration, and public engagement.
This spirit of open experiment and process-led making directly informs her teaching on AUB’s BA (Hons) Textiles Design course, where students are encouraged to test ideas, challenge disciplinary boundaries, and adopt sustainable making methodologies.
In her own work, paper collages stored in sketchbooks over three decades serve as foundation blueprints. Anna combines these with lino printing, hand-stitching, and patchwork techniques to construct textured visual narratives, often working with repurposed linen tea towels and cotton yarns to minimise environmental impact.
“I slowly realised that I could use whichever aspects of whichever processes I enjoyed without following their strict codes,” Anna says. “The rich, diverse universe of stitch is not confined to the exquisite, fine work traditionally associated with embroidery. The stitches I work with are plainer, the materials less refined, perhaps more in the folk tradition.”
Following the conclusion of Stitches, Patches and Glitches at ACEarts on 22 August, Anna's work will feature in two major South West exhibitions later this year:
- Conceal / Reveal: exhibiting at the Atkinson Gallery this autumn.
- RWA 173 Open Exhibition: exhibiting at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA), Bristol this autumn.
Want to see more of Anna's work?
To discover more about Anna's work and her collaborations with Seam Collective, follow her on Instagram or explore her academic publications via AUBREI.
