Event Details
Dolls created by Carolina Vega, Chile, responding to the arpillera 'Ausencias - Presencias 2 / Absences – Presences 2', by Ana Zlatkes. (Photo: Carolina Vega) |
| Online exhibition: | Arpillera Doll Exhibition |
| Description: | This exhibition is another collaboration with Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre (RVACC) and Museum Service Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council (CCGBC). It emerged from the online version of Embracing Human Rights: Conflict Textiles’ Journey exhibition launched on 7th March, attended by over 60 people.
It evolved from an open invitation issued from the Associated Activities for all ages section Make your own arpillera doll. To augment the process, we issued the invitation to arpilleristas/makers whose pieces featured in the exhibition, to collectors who lent us pieces, to those who came to the exhibition launch on 7th March and to a wider cohort of people closely connected to Conflict Textiles.
Their response to the brief – to create an arpillera doll connected to one of the exhibition pieces – has yielded rich outcomes. Makers from a host of countries – from first time sewers to experienced arpilleristas - using their scraps of fabric, have created dolls of every shape, size and hue, dolls which embody a vast range of actions and emotions and who traverse past, present and future. As the dolls took shape, as their creators gave them colour, action, purpose and voice, they, in turn embodied the messages of their makers and promoted a depth of reflection. Above all, these dolls confront us with the glaring gap between the rights articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the lived experiences of many human beings, over 70 years later.
The completed exhibition was comprised of 59 dolls made by 49 contributors(see documents section below).
In parallel to this process a more local set of dolls emerged. In partnership with RVACC and the Bogside and Brandywell Initiative’s Peace Walls Programme, Roberta Bacic worked remotely with Kyra Reynolds, Development Worker, Triax Neighbourhood Management Team, guiding her in the process of making an arpillera doll. In turn, Kyra engaged a group of women from the Triax area of Derry/Londonderry in a cross community textile arts project exploring human rights violations and their response to them. The "Triax Arpillera Dolls Exhibition" (hosted online by RVACC until 17th July 2021) is the outcome of this engagement. (see documents section below). For a reflection on the process and outcome, see documents section below (‘Triax Arpillera Dolls article, K.Reynolds '21’). |
| Commissioned by: | Conflict Textiles and Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre |
| Date(s): | 21st April 2020 - 31st July 2020 |
| Venue: | Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, Limavady, Northern Ireland
24 Main Street Limavady, Northern Ireland. BT49 0FJ |
| Curator: | Roberta Bacic and Breege Doherty |
| Facilitator: | Esther Alleyne, Museum Service Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council (CCGBC) |
| Outcome: | There has been a high level of global engagement and interest in both the "Embracing Human Rights: Conflict Textiles’ Journey Online Exhibition" and the "Arpillera Doll exhibition". Both are featured in the Culture Unconfined Festival, an online arts and culture festival created by the University of Liverpool. The exhibitions and associated activities are also being used by two schools in London as a learning resource and engagement |
| Documents: |
• Press release: RVACC, 14th May 2020 - view
• Poster: Arpillera Doll virtual exhibition - view
• Poster: Virtual guided tour, 30 June 2020 - view
• Poster: Triax Arpillera Doll virtual exhibit - view
• Triax Arpillera Dolls: image and description - view
• Invite: Triax Arpillera Doll virtual launch - view
• Triax Arpillera Dolls: virtual launch-22 June - view
• Press release: RVACC, 23rd June 2020 - view
• Triax Arpillera Dolls article, K.Reynolds '21 - view
• Arpillera dolls - phase 1, April 2020 - view
• Arpillera dolls - phase 2, May 2020 - view
• Arpillera dolls - phase 3, May 2020 - view
• Arpillera dolls - phase 4, May 2020 - view
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