Holding Memory Through Craft and Material
With all my heart, I wrote my first piece as part of Mariyam Speaks for French Press Global.
It began with a question I keep returning to in my work at BANANA Labs
How is memory really preserved?
Not digitally. Not in things we scroll past.
But in what we choose to make, keep, and live with.
One paragraph from the piece has stayed with me:
After all, clothing at its most basic level could be simple. We could all wear the same colours, the same silhouettes, the same garments year after year.
Yet we don’t.
Because clothing has never been purely functional. It carries expression, identity, emotion, and values. Choosing a crafted textile is a choice beyond aesthetics. It reflects intention.
This idea extends beyond clothing.
Craft, to me, is one of the most grassroots expressions of design. It is where material, process, and human touch come together to hold something more than function.
At BANANA Labs, I have seen how material carries memory
In wood grains that shift over time
In marks that are not erased
In processes that are repeated, refined, and passed on
These are not just objects. They are continuations.
We could choose uniformity.
But we don’t.
And in that choice lies something important
An insistence on meaning, on individuality, on connection
Writing this piece felt less like forming an argument and more like tracing something I have been observing for a long time
Quietly, consistently, through the act of making
If this resonates with how you think about design, craft, or the things you choose to live with, you can read the full article here:
Read the full piece on French Press Global:
https://www.frenchpressglobal.com/articles/on-holding-memory-in-wood
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