Helen Stratford’s Public S/Pacing resting blanket has been selected for the exhibition Design and Disability V&A London 7 June 2025 – 15 February 2026.

Relentless hyper-productivity characterises public space and contemporary life. How do deeply personal worlds of pain and limited energy encounter spaces built around expectations of able-bodiedness?

The resting blanket forms part of the project ‘Public S/Pacing’ developed with Bloc Projects Sheffield. Written S slash Pacing and informed by Stratford’s lived experience of chronic pain, the title highlights the rehabilitation technique of pacing prescribed for people with chronic pain and energy limiting conditions. The project included visiting a number of disabled artists and cultural practitioners, each exploring health and disability in different ways. The journey towards them; the varying demands and labour of travel; the contingencies to meet online or not at all; as well as the eventual conversations were used as opportunities to explore the ableist presumptions that structure daily life. Asking: in what ways are they chronically prohibitive? and can we generate more ‘crip’ understandings and constitutions of public space?

Embroidered with details and printed with text and image fragments from the conversations, the blanket is the work of many hands and bodyminds. Made in collaboration with disabled textile designer and artist Poppy Nash, it includes contributions from Rhonda Allen, Rhiannon Armstrong, Emma Bolland, Liz Crow, Sarah Hopfinger Bella Milroy and Helen Stratford. It was made with the help of the following artist makers: Olivia Bliss, Isabella Carreras, Terri-Louise Doyle, Frances Heap, Idit Elia Nathan.

Public S/Pacing was supported by Bloc projects and Arts Council England.