Many Hands United

You're all familiar with the phenomenon: someone proudly shows a huge patchwork quilt (you only have the patience for a napkin-sized piece), or has built a cupboard (you can carve crooked spoons), or knits pink hats (Abre numa nova janela) for a huge protest march (maybe a friend will give you one) ... and you give up. You give up before you started.

If it’s art, you perhaps even don’t join: but I’m not an artist! I’m not a crafter! What might I be able to achieve on my own?

Therefore, I do love participatory art (Abre numa nova janela). It’s the technical term when many non-artist people work on something creative which is then transformed into one big piece of art. The real artist or artist organisation remain in the background as organisers and motivators. One of the most successful participatory art projects of the last years came from the twin-sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim: their Crochet Coral Reef (Abre numa nova janela) travelled around the globe, people from everywhere joined the joyful work to crochet corals (Abre numa nova janela) - and some still do it. Perhaps they would never have done it alone but when being part of a museum exhibit, they were overwhelmed by feelings.

Such projects easily become community art (Abre numa nova janela), social practice (Abre numa nova janela), and craftivism (Abre numa nova janela) with a political aim. Perhaps you have already seen some events of Inside Out, launched by the French artist JR (Abre numa nova janela). By displaying large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces, “actions have revolved around a range of topics: diversity, community, feminism, racism, climate change, education, children’s rights, and art are just a few of them.” Half a million people from 152 countries have joined.

This is the secret: Whatever you do, it can work as social glue, become a visible political protest. But the best of all: in participating, you are no longer isolated, you became part of a group or movement. And all these tiny parts form something big enough that others can’t overlook it any more.

• Definition and history of participative art (Abre numa nova janela)

• History & Theory background of participative art (Abre numa nova janela)

• Examples of the participatory art revival in 2017 (Abre numa nova janela)

• Artificial hells : participatory art and the politics of spectatorship (Abre numa nova janela)

A Project For A Friend

For the last months, I joined such a project, not a political one, just like friends do it. And it was such an important and lovely experience! We are a club of women doing mostly embroidery but also some knitting, lace, or crochet. I’m nearly the one who had never learnt to embroider accurately and perfectly like my cross-stitch colleagues. So I developed my “wild embroidery” looking like children's scribbles, sometimes I transform French Knot stitches into moss, or I “paint with the needle”.

Suddenly, we were faced with the challenge: we wanted to gift our organiser something special that money couldn't buy in any shop. What if we all embroidered something for her ... and made something out of it? Quickly, the idea of a patchwork blanket was born which would be fixed by our sewing talent. We had no idea what an immense task lay ahead of this woman: she had to come up with a plan, keep the rascals together, and push the tardies to meet the deadline. Meanwhile, she collected suitable fabric remnants and finally got down to sewing. Warning: If you would like to organise participatory art, calculate more time and energy than you think you will need.

Each of us was free to choose a motif. To ensure that everything would fit together afterwards, the rule was that we could only choose colours from the brownish spectrum or white; the fabrics should not be pure white. So it would fit to any colours of the blanket. For me, it was a difficult challenge: I don't like beige tones and have never worked with these colours before. But when I visited our museum geese Rosalie and Kasimir, I suddenly had my motif! I dyed an old flannel coton with black tea over night. Then I drew outlines of geese with one of those magic pens whose colour disappears after ironing. Needle painting …

It's hard to put into words what a project like this does to you. Weeks of work in anticipation of the recipient's joy. The wonderful secrecy, because she saw that we were embroidering. Our surprise when we watched the finished object. And the immense joy that this blanket brought. As we celebrated it all over dinner, the magic of our community art slowly dawned on us: so many personal stories and memories woven into a piece of fabric that will survive for a long time to come. Made by the hands of 20 women.

Alone you can feel overwhelmed or isolated. Many hands united can create a treasure of memories and beauty - or lasting political projects.

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