Mia Kennedy Brennan

My work explores sexism through personal experience, beginning with my time working in a pub where I was often on the receiving end of sexist comments. These experiences made me reflect on how normalised this behaviour has become. This led me to speak with the women in my family across four generations — my great nanny, nan, mam, and myself — about what has changed and what has remained the same. These conversations made it clear that while some things have progressed, much still falls short of where it should be.

From there, I began exploring sewing, something deeply rooted within my family history. My great nanny was a tailor; she taught my nan, my nan taught my mam, and my mam taught me. Sewing became a way of connecting with them and understanding the support and care that can emerge from something so traditionally “feminine”. In my work, clothing functions both as a form of armour and as a method of making. Working with textiles and embroidery also allowed me to explore the medium in ways I had not previously attempted.

Textiles and embroidery have enabled me to experiment with materials in new ways, expanding my practice into soft sculpture and monotype printmaking. These mediums allow me to translate lived experience, memory, and inherited knowledge into physical form, combining the fragility and strength of fabric through multilayered surfaces, stitched forms, and printed marks.