I love you as much as all the beads in the universe: a garment-based inquiry into re-stitching alternative worlds of love

I love you as much as all the beads in the universe: a garment-based inquiry into re-stitching alternative worlds of love by Justine Woods is a thesis exhibition presented to OCAD University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of Master of Design in Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design.

This Master of Design thesis exhibition engages with a praxis of decolonial love through garment construction and beadwork as a practice-based method of inquiry. My research centres decolonial love as methodology with the expressed purpose to physically and conceptually re-stitch alternative worlds that are grounded in ethical practices and based on respect, empathy, reciprocity, consent and love. Engaging in decolonial love as praxis, the artistic production of my MDes thesis re-frames pattern drafting, garment construction and stitching methods within decolonial and relationship-based contexts. This MDes thesis prioritizes, and foregrounds, all of the relationships that make up my identity as an Aabitaawikwe of Penetanguishene, Ontario and centres these relationships as praxis towards building alternative worlds of love that honour, celebrate and mobilize Indigenous internationalism, intercultural solidarity, co-resistance and liberation.