weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 72
When approached by Soharóza to lead a botanical print workshop
for a group of men at a rehabilitation centre in Hungary, I seized
the opportunity to align the workshop conceptually with the rehab
centre’s environment. The workshop aimed to resonate with the men
on their journey of redefining addiction patterns. Drawing parallels
with the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi, the art of repairing broken
things with gold, it encouraged participants to embrace the ‘stains
in life’ as part of the healing process. Participants purposefully made
stains (prints) on t-shirts using plants from the natural surroundings
of the rehabilitation centre. By sharing this narrative at the outset,
storytelling became a guiding framework, infusing meaning into
the material-making process. Towards the end, an unintentional yet
powerful ritual ceremony unfolded. We printed a communal fabric
with the leftover plants, and as rain fell on the parking lot, I asked
the participants: “What do you wish for yourself?” Standing together,
each participant contributed their personal wishes by laying out the
plants one by one onto the textile, transforming the action into a
special ceremony with the material outcome infused with personal
meaning.
When we unwrapped the textile and t-shirts collectively, Tara Khozein
conducted a meditative voice exercise. This created a heightened
energy field of collective concentration and demonstrated again
how well body and material practices can complement each other
in collective endeavours, bringing both inner and outer worlds
together in a moment of sharing. Following this, we cut the textile
into small pieces to create individual notebooks for each participant.
These served as personal objects intertwined with communal wishes,
providing an intimate space for each person to write their own story
again.
142
143
While facilitating craft techniques may not immediately lead to
personal story-sharing, the narratives and actions embedded in
workshops, such as the ritual ceremony in Komló, foster a profound
sense of personal connection to communal activities and outcomes.
As an artist, I find the process of collective making, infused with
meaning that bridges the outside world and the inner worlds of
The ceremonial textile, Komló, Hungary, October 2023.
72
