PALIMPSEST

2022

Palimpsest draws from historical accounts of witchcraft accusations and convictions found in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic's rare books collection. These early 17th-century texts, typically inaccessible due to their fragility, are reactivated through textile and video processes. Rather than reproducing the documents in stable form, the work transfers select pages onto translucent silk, forming tactile “ghost pages” or layers them into video as ephemeral overlays that flicker in and out of legibility.

The textile component is constructed from silk cloth that is stitched and shaped into a dress-like form using chaotic, unravelling smocking—a decorative bunched-stitch technique developed in medieval England. Here, the structure does not stabilize the garment but destabilizes it: threads loosen, tensions shift, and the surface gathers unevenly. The dress operates as a site of inscription, where the historical weight of witchcraft persecution is materially registered onto (predominantly) female bodies.

Video segments document the performative making of the piece in and around Boscastle, foregrounding the embodied labour that underpins its formation. Additional digital collages and performance videos, developed in tandem, are included as artifacts of process—residual outputs that extend the work beyond a singular object or event.

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Palimpsest was produced, performed, and first exhibited during WhiteFeather’s initial residency at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Presented as a work-in-progress on October 31, 2022, it was later featured at Blue Lotus Project Space. The work was subsequently shown in 2024 as part of Arcanum Sanguinis: Occult Blood, and in 2025 as part of THEY CALL ME WITCH at The Crypt Gallery, London, curated by Wenqi Zheng of the Which Witch Collective.