Katja Ebbel

THE WASTELAND
Room 7: Blueprint for a possible future
Using old sewing patterns as a base, these collages break and rewrite the instructions for shaping a dress. These tailoring templates — passed down from my English grandmother — were once strict maps of domesticity. Now, they are reimagined into surreal blueprints, shifting into a playground of possibility. Through my reworking, entirely new instructions emerge — ones that require careful reading to be understood, to reveal the form’s potential. Here, freedom isn’t found in rejecting structure, but in bending it —rewriting inherited rules to allow space for the unexpected. These outlines give rise to unfamiliar silhouettes, abstracted versions of the patterns my grandmother once lived by. In this way, I hope to open new perspectives on narrow frameworks — to let them dissolve and be replaced by looser, more fluid forms.