Who is Afraid of Red?

Beschrijving

Who is Afraid of Red?
Handwoven linen textile, 52 x 52 cm
1/1
Designed on the drawloom as one of 26 woven textile pieces for The Book of Love
Book of Love Preview can be read ICI

Photo ‘Crafts Council Nederland, HOW&WOW Linen, fotografie: Sjoerd Knibbeler’.  craftscouncil.nl

Oktober 2020, Maaike Gottschal

Od. 5.59-62: “A great fire blazed on the hearth and the smell of cedar cleanly split and sweet wood burning bright wafted a cloud of fragrance down the island. Deep inside she sang, the goddess Calypso, lifting her breathtaking voice as she guided back and forth before her loom, her golden shuttle weaving ”

Background of the work

The works were made as a conclusion of my master’s at the Design Academy, which was about technology, energy, and change.

The work is a declaration of love for language and expression in its widest form and tribute to the artists I love. Before there was written language, we used chants to memorize intricate weaving patterns. All techniques (arts, crafts), patterns and oral narratives are the foreland of our written language and connected to instruments that help us to express ourselves. We have a common language (Indo-European language family). And this common background lies in the actions we do (growing crops, eating, making, sharing and making love: creation.

The work is also a historical correction. There were no female members and no weavers associated with De Stijl. For me this is painful. In the modernization process too much has been neglected the importance of intuition, craftsmanship, connection, universal values and the obligations that this entails. I am sure that a female weaver could have portrayed this emphatically in Mondrian’s time.

Hi Piet, Hi Marcel. Can we have a talk? Something might be not that well translated, expressed. Maybe it’s a good idea to go back in time and see what went wrong. A missing thread.