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Sanquhar Highstreet in August 2020
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My artist residency at the MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland
In
spite of all the complications and restrictions that were caused by
the global pandemic that is still going on, this summer I had the
opportunity to travel to Scotland. I stayed there as an artist in
residence at the MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, in the southwest of the
country, not far away from Dumfries. Several months before I was
finally allowed to take one the first flights that went to Edinburgh
after the lockdown, I started to plan my project for my stay in
Sanquhar. It was based on the fact that as a teenager I was seriously
eager to learn to play the bagpipes, on my general fascination for
the English language, my yearning for Great Britain and also on the
story about the old red telephone box that my parents installed in
their garden, more than twenty years ago.
In
the end I was working on two parallel projects, on a video about
Sanquhar itself, that also included the story about the telephone box
and the local knitting tradition and also on a second project that
dealt with the architecture of Peter Womersley. As this is also a
rather extensive story I will describe it in a further article.
The
woven Sanquhar Dress
Sanquhar
is famous for having the Oldest
Post Office
in the world that is still in operation. Another important topic is
the Sanquhar Knitting Pattern, a black and white pattern that dates
back to the 17th
century and that is mainly used for gloves.
One
of my original ideas for my residency in Sanquhar was to weave a
dress out of ribbons that were made in the old textile company that
friends of mine are running in Wuppertal. During the industrial
revolution and also still in the 20th
century Wuppertal was a thriving textile city. Kerstin and Christian
Escher's company named Escher Textil dates back to 1849 and today is
one of the last textile companies of Wuppertal. They were so kind as
to send me a big package full of ribbons to the MERZ Gallerery. By
weaving my dress out of their ribbons, improvising and varying the
Sanquhar pattern, I aimed at linking the textile tradition of my home
area with the textile tradition of Sanquhar.
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Weaving the sleeve of my Sanquhar-dress out of ribbons produced in Wuppertal
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My bagpipe - finally re-assembled in Sanquhar | | | | | | | | |
Originally
I wanted to do a performance wearing this dress and take
part in the Riding of the Marches, the annual procession that takes
place in Sanquhar each summer - perhaps even with my bagpipe. Unfortunately the Riding of the
Marches was cancelled due to the global pandemic. Nevertheless I went
on with my Sanquhar Project, trying to document what I experienced
and what seemed beautiful and special for me. And I started weaving
the dress.