weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 73
participants, to be most rewarding. When we create this space,
we connect more deeply with ourselves, each other, and our
environment, allowing transformation and significant memories to
be made. This, for me, is the greatest potential of collective art
practices, as it weaves material outcomes with intangible personal
and communal stories, created through connections.
artwork, is this intangible space of human interactions, expressions
and transformations. The shared memories and personal relations
that bridge both physical and metaphorical borders, and allowed us
to become a community ourselves. And perhaps we can say that a
community in itself, with all its layers, patterns and interconnected
stories, can be considered one of humanity’s most rich and
interesting works of creation – an artwork in its own right.
The carpet
conclusion
Throughout the Weaving Voices project and its experimental
structure, it became apparent that both material and body practices
positively complement each other in the weaving of our communal
carpet, both metaphorical and literal. It was fascinating to observe
how, by engaging in both types of activities for a prolonged period,
the group began weaving together new patterns in which outward
and inward, material and embodied, meet. For us, this took the
shape of a collective practice where weaving, dyeing, singing,
moving and living together intertwined as methods to facilitate the
weaving of individual and communal stories.
Yet, I find myself wondering, after days spent weaving and singing,
threads and stories, how do we conceptually frame the finished
carpet? The need for tangible outcomes is deeply ingrained in our
culture. Across all disciplines, we seek physical and quantifiable proof
of our efforts, and community art projects are no exception. Perhaps
pondering the nature of outcomes in this type of project encourages
us to question this paradigm. Alternatively, this question may inspire
a meaningful reflection on the outcomes of all community art
projects.
We have at hand both immaterial and material carpets as outcomes
of our community art project. How do we evaluate material outcomes
when the matter we are weaving is mostly immaterial? How do
we frame and share a carpet made of moments lived together; of
singing while weaving, of dinners and walks, of experiencing natural
environments through botanical dyeing and sound baths, of online
meetings and physical warm-ups, and sharing our combined creative
activities with other communities? Perhaps the outcome, or the
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Interactive exhibition organised by Nina van Hartskamp, at Lola Luid, Amsterdam, 2024.
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