2023

9 wool textiles colored with plants and embroidered with wool

 

Wool cloths colored by indigenous plants from Belgium and the Netherlands. The plants used are the leaves of elderberry, sorrel, nettles and willow, the stems of horsetail, the flowers of tansy and roots of cleavers and dandelion. A selection of the old Dutch and Flemish names (before standardization in 1907) of the plants is embroidered on some of the cloths. The plants that appeared in the 'playgarden' were used to color woolen cloths, the actions were then embroidered on the cloths.

 

The coloring of the plants is approached as an alternative photographic process, where the index of the plants are contained in the canvases. The wool used for embroidery is dyed with oak gall nuts, a recipe used as ink in medieval manuscripts.

 

This work will be exhibited in De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam in September 2023 during the exhibition 'Enveloped in you' together with works of Ugo Woatzi, Anthony Ngoya and Aurélie Bayad & Günbike Erdemir.

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Installation photographs by LNDW Studio

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This project is part of the long-term research project 'Onkruid vergaat niet' (weeds don't wither), in which I explore rituals and customs of plants through their old Flemish and Dutch folk names. These names were standardized in 1907 by the Committee for Dutch Plant Names, established in 1902.