“Layers of Traces” (2019), handwoven textile, linen, 36 cm x 180 cm, ceramic pieces, various size. Collaboration with potter and artist Herman Verhagen.
The work ‘Layers of Traces’ consists of ceramic sculptures in various sizes with imprints of a handwoven textile. The sculptures are shaped like vessels and are executed in unburned clay, fired clay and glazed stoneware.
‘Layers of Traces’, ‘Layers of Stone’ and ‘Layers of Memory’ are three separate works made with traces of textiles. The works consist of prints made in negative, like a shadow of textiles that are now absent, ceramic sculptures covered in imprints of textile and a text on the wall in square nylon letters like the interlacing grids of vertical and horizontal threads.
Textiles, usually made from fragile organic materials do not last long. Because of this we can often only access a secondary history, where the traces of textiles are caught in another material. Could this be part of the reason the history of textile and its creators, usually women, is often overlooked?
The inspiration behind these works are archaeological finds where residue of textiles and textile production are found in durable materials like pottery, tools and rusted metal adornments. For this project I specifically looked at Neolithic ceramic artefacts decorated with imprints of ropes and textiles (European Corded Ware culture), 20.000 year old negative impressions of perished fibre works from Dolní Věstonice (archaeological site in Czech Republic) and textile imprints found on metal tools and brooches from Danish Iron Age grave finds. In the works I look carefully at these traces and experiment with their role as witnesses to textiles that have over time decomposed and are now absent. With objects and prints the works reactivate the human gestures petrified in these traces.
Part of the exhibition, I want to Belong to The Living, with Anna Hillbom and Ann-Catrin Olsson at PuntWG in Amsterdam.