Textile Initiative is an event series, organised by Dasha Golova and Bronwen Jones, that welcomes everyone to experiment and engage with textile crafts. The programme unfolds across five events across different locations in Amsterdam with workshops, performances, and readings that expand on the topic of textile while weaving in other practices relating to tradition, preservation, ecology, technology, routine, and productivity. You can find more about the programme here: linktr.ee/textileinitiative
Join us at Zone2Source for a day centred around the making and maintenance, use and decay of material; following the passage of time that accompanies textile pieces and the processes of crafting them. We will begin with a workshop led by Ellen Yiu, followed by two performances by Meghan Clarke and Romy Day Winkel, respectively.
Note: Please sign up to Ellen’s workshop in advance. The performances of Meghan and Romy are free to attend and you don’t need to sign up, we will have drinks from 4.30pm.
2 – 4.30pm – Miniature Quilt-making Workshop with Ellen Yiu
The practice of Ellen Yiu cannot be easily categorised. Much of her work relies on slow craftsmanship, but she also uses found objects. She works with extensive installations and makes miniature handcrafted sculptures. There is a certain inbetweenness in her work that is reflected in the diversity of materials that she uses, such as paper, textiles and wood. She processes her personal experiences and memories in her work, focusing on themes such as identity, healing and cultural connection.
Ellen will lead a Miniature Quilt-making Workshop – the workshop will be an introduction into a particular process of her practice. She will be teaching techniques, such as patchwork and quilting, on a miniature scale. (You’re welcome to bring needles and fabric that you would like to use, there will also be materials provided.)
5pm – Between Was And Am – Performance by Meghan Clarke
Meghan Clarke will present Between Was And Am, an audio performance that uses the act of unravelling and embroidering a piece of fabric as the rhythm, and forum, for storytelling. The work explores the feeling of being in-between the two places the artist calls home, and the way her use of language has changed as a result. During the performance, a sonic landscape is crafted by deconstructing and recomposing a collection of sound and written material – field recordings, piano compositions and poetry. The work is informed by the oral and musical traditions that bind textiles and telling tales.
6pm – ]bracket – Performance by Romy Day Winkel
Romy Day Winkel will present her installation and performance titled ]bracket, which revolves around Anne Carson’s Sappho translations in ‘If Not, Winter’ (2002). Due to lack of sufficient conservation, parts of Sappho’s original manuscripts have been destroyed. Carson leaves these missing pieces of papyrus into the text via adding brackets, which Winkel in turn connects to the shape of a foot on its toes. By walking through the installation while wearing silk socks with wooden rings in them, Winkel provokes a slow destruction of the socks, which raises the question: is it at all possible, and even desirable, to avoid destruction? What happens if we instead embrace it, mark it, like Carson did with her brackets?
Orangerie
