Nomadic Somali textile practices took center stage on Tuesday afternoon inside the National College of Art and Design gallery space in The Liberties, Dublin, where a group gathered to construct a living room using waste wool from Irish mills like Botanic Weavers, Avoca Handweavers and Foxford Woolen Mills.
The project, named Common Threads, involves weaving strips of surplus textile material lengthwise around upright sticks to build colorful, temporary structures that act as communal gathering spaces. Saada Osman, a Somali woman and community organiser based in Sheffield, England, led the weaving process alongside members of the Higsad Alool Weavers.
Osman has collaborated with Sheffield artistic group The Bare Project for three years to build similar living rooms on busy shopping streets, creating open spaces for workshops, storytelling, singing, and sharing food before dismantling the structures without a trace. “There is something special about moments in the city centre that are not about buying something,” Malaika Cunningham, artistic director with The Bare Project, told The Journal.
Artist Jennie Moran brought Common Threads to Dublin as part of a residency at NCAD Field, drawing on her work with hospitality spaces such as the former NCAD café Luncheonette. Moran visited the installation in Sheffield and sought to replicate its radical public welcome within a gallery setting during a three-day festival of welcome.
Moran defines hospitality not as a commercial industry related to hotels, but as a system created by humans to welcome strangers, making it a vital alternative methodology to modern isolation and hoarding. She said that offering personal time to collectively build a physical shelter represents one of the most precious resources individuals can share today.
“There’s a hospitality that we often associate with sharing space with someone, or letting someone into your space,” Moran told The Journal. “But actually now we’re so stretched for time, and we’re so busy that in fact one of our most precious resources that we can give is our time.”
The Dublin event is the first time Common Threads has performed outside Sheffield. While shifted indoors for November, the gallery features a brightly lit floor-to-ceiling window designed to maintain an open invitation for pedestrians to drop in without booking.
Visitor participation exceeded initial expectations during setup and early sessions, with students and solo visitors spending hours conversing and working on the structure together. Moran described the atmosphere among participants as pure joy.
The three-day event featured diverse programming inside the newly woven structure, including talks and traditional storytelling. Traveller storyteller Oein de Bhardún shared narratives rooted in his own nomadic tradition from the center of the textile room.
Outside the college walls on Tuesday afternoon, gardaí arrested protesters demonstrating against the presence of former US president Joe Biden, while city center roads experienced blockades to accommodate arriving EU leaders. Inside the gallery on Thomas Street, however, visitors drank herbal tea, shared dates, and engaged in unhurried conversation.
“For little while on Thomas Street, the door was open for anyone who wanted to come inside,” The Journal reported.
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