LEEK! LEEK!

Gelbes Haus Art Residency

Switzerland, 2025–26

Developed during a three-month residency in Lucerne, LEEK! LEEK! began through walking and close observation of the city. From the position of a stranger, everyday signs, markings, and architectural details were encountered without fixed meaning, allowing not-knowing to become a generative condition. Through this renewed attention, the familiar urban environment became available to new readings and connections.

Works

The White, Green & Pink Series

A series of embroidered paper works translating urban markings, architectural details, and found symbols into hand-stitched forms.

The Orange Alphabet

An embroidered alphabet developed from street markings and organised as a speculative writing system inspired by the structure of the Greek script.

Participatory

Goals for Life

Participants interpreted ten hand-embroidered cards developed from visual traces gathered while walking through Lucerne and proposed possible origins for their symbols. Each participant chose one card to receive as a gift, while an identical version was created and returned to the set. The project later continued in Chalkida and Athens, and through remote participation by artists and previous collaborators in other cities, who received their chosen cards by post. As the symbols circulated between people and places, they formed a growing network of relationships among participants and with the cities through which the project travelled.

Specifications

Series of embroidered paper works; hand embroidery on cardstock

Embroidered alphabet; set of 24 hand-embroidered cardstock cards