Welcome.
This page is about mending textiles but also healing yourself through the healing of others, the mind and the body, enlightenment thinking, the cartesian self, mending the inner in botanical gardens and quilting.
Reading list:
-RIZVI, UZMA. “Decolonization as care”. Slow
reader: A Resource for Design Thinking and
Practice. Eds. Strauss, Carolyn and Pais, Anna
Paula. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2017.
-Fray: Art and Textile Politics. by Julia Bryan-Wilson is published by University of Chicago Press.
-Women, Native, Other by Trinh Min Ha.
-Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and
the Underground Railroad by Jacqueline L.
Tobin, Raymond G. Dobard
Evaluation at the Botanical Gardens in Leiden
Collected knowledges where the body is central
the first patch; a scream for attention, bright all over the place and in your face
The second patch; about finding myself in nature, calm, organic and living
the final patch; a door that draws you in, looking destined and neat, posh
The patches; all made to draw you in or closer. the nature and neon one are supposed to literally draw you closer, so that you can see the details, feel the textures and smell the scents.
The 'porch' patch is supposed to figuratively draw you in. It looks good, it invites you in.
Research
Reflections
Collected
Material
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 1
Week one was all about experiencing the mending of the mind and the body itself. We practiced a deep listening exercise and talked about mending in the body and mending a quilt, with examples such as the huge Aids quilt and the African slavery women who made encrypted messages in the quilts. We also did a small introduction game to easily remember each others names.
Week 2
We went to the Botanical Garden in Leiden, or the 'Hortus Botanicus Leiden'. Here we did the same deep listening exercise but in another atmosphere. We also did the introduction game with Teana again, which really is a good way to get to know each other.
After these two exercises we formed couples and one guided the other through the garden, the one that was blindfolded.
Even though I did not know the girl before, it worked really well and we put faith in each other.
The guiding was an experience on itself, let alone the being guided and blind folded.
What it was like to lead:
It went slower than I thought
Even though I didn't really experience time in the same way, so I actually couldn't say for sure.
But it went a lot quicker than being lead.
What it was like to be lead:
It felt and specifically sounded like everything was nearby. I felt superficial in a way, because I could hear like a mouse.
While actually in the beginning it felt like my hearing was taken away with my sight. I first felt like I needed to be able so see to hear properly.
Besides that:
The exercise made distance and time compression en expansion.
(You can read the rest in my notes, I feel like they express the experiences better)
Week 3
I wrote down these knowledges or experiences where the body, or the I is central. A first I thought mine were wrong because they felt more like in the mind. But actually these knowledges are typically me, in my body, my mind in my body, I in me.
These formed the fundament for my patches, which I concluded together with Amy to be about drawing the voyeur in.
We also had a class from a former student that did her finals about quilting, mending, stitching, etc. That class was very nice and inspiring.
Week 4
This week was about making the actual patches. I was pretty confident about what I wanted and it turned out in a passionate couple of days, very intense but satisfying.
I don't feel the need to explain about them here because it became very clear in the presentations today. I am happy with the results and I fel like we really did this together.
I definitely loved the vibes during the presentations, partly due to the way of feedback. The feedback they gave me also made me really happy.
Feedback
Some plants I didn't use
The final quilt
Thank you Amy.