One of the most enjoyable days for me during the TRC’s Intensive Textile course has always been dye day. Dozens and dozens of glass jars are lined up on a long table, reflecting a rainbow of colours, which participants get to play –oh, sorry, I meant to write practice—dyeing different fabrics with.
The history of dyes and mordants is fascinating, as is the whole process of dyeing. The quality of the water used, the temperature it's boiled, the type of pan used (copper or iron or steel)—any variation in any of this can change the hue. I have to marvel at how our ancestors discovered the different dye qualities of so many plants, leaves, roots, barks, nuts, insects and molluscs.
“Guernica de la Ecologia” by Claudy Jongstra. Photograph by Shelley Anderson.
So I was very interested in seeing the latest solo exhibition of Dutch textile artist Claudy Jongstra (1963) at Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen (NL). Jongstra is well known for her wool murals and wall hangings, which you can see in buildings like the OBA (Central Library) in Amsterdam, and in Dutch embassies across the world. She has mastered the techniques of felting wool and dyeing with natural dyes. The wool she uses in her work comes from her own herd of rare Drenthe Heath sheep, the oldest breed in Western Europe.
The exhibition “Guernica de la Ecologia” opens with a short video, in which Jongstra talks about her project to reintroduce traditional dye plants and natural dyeing into the Netherlands. She grows dye plants on her own farm in Friesland and with farmers from the Beersche Hoeve in the southern Dutch province of Brabant. She has adapted medieval dye recipes for use in her art work, using plants such as woad (for blue); dyer’s rocket, weld, or onion skins (for yellow); madder (for red); and a combination of woad, madder, walnut shells, ash and onion skins to produce what Jongsta calls Burgundian black.
Such plants have a long history in the Netherlands, and were also used in making pigments for paintings by the Dutch Masters; by the seventeenth century the country even sold the high quality madder it produced throughout Europe. In 2022 Jongstra developed her own blue colour, called ‘blue gold’, from woad.
After the video visitors can wander through a short exhibit that explains more about how the dye plants are processed, ending in a small atelier where they can try their hand at carding wool and weaving on an upright loom.
Samples of natural dyed textiles at the exhibition “Guernica de la Ecologia” by Claudy Jongstra. Photograph by Shelley Anderson.
The exhibit culminates with a massive felted wool art piece called “Guernica de la Ecologia”. It is the exact dimensions (349 x 776 cm) as Pablo Picasso’s classic anti-war painting “Guernica” (1937). In that painting Picasso tried to depict the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. Jongstra made her piece to protest the loss of biodiversity, including the loss of traditional dye plants.
Claudy Jongstra’s “Guernica de la Ecologia” is on until 17 September 2023. See www.kranenburgh.nl for more information. The TRC’s remaining Intensive Textile Course for 2023 (the September and October dates are full) for which there still are vacancies is from 27 November-1 December. For 2024 the dates are: 12-16 Febr; 22-26 April; 17-22 June (provisional); 12-16 Aug; 7-11 Oct; 18-22 Nov (provisional). Contact us if you are interested: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Shelley Anderson, 14 July
