Thursday, 28 March 2024

Event Details

Women from the Peace Barriers Programme, Bogside and Brandywell Initiative with Conflict Textile facilitators and Peace Barriers Programme staff at the launch of their collective textile 'Derry Dolls - Past to Present'. (Photo: Conflict Textiles Archive)

Women from the Peace Barriers Programme, Bogside and Brandywell Initiative with Conflict Textile facilitators and Peace Barriers Programme staff at the launch of their collective textile 'Derry Dolls - Past to Present'. (Photo: Conflict Textiles Archive)

 

Workshops:Derry Dolls: Present to Past
Description: These workshops were seeded through connections made at the launch of the Embracing Human Rights: Conflict Textiles’ Journey exhibition, 7th March 2020, between Kyra Reynolds, Development Worker, Triax Neighbourhood Management Team / Bogside and Brandywell Initiative’s Peace Walls Programme (BBI), Roberta Bacic, Conflict Textiles curator and Esther Alleyne, Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre

In Spring and early summer 2020, Roberta worked remotely with Kyra, guiding her in the process of making an arpillera doll and supporting her in working virtually with women from the Triax area in a cross community textile arts project exploring human rights violations and their response to them. The "Triax Arpillera Dolls Exhibition", documented in a related initiative Arpillera Doll Exhibition, was the outcome of this engagement.
(Derry Dolls: A Return to Textiles… with a Twist‘, K.Reynolds '21’, also available on Stitched Voices Blog)

The ‘Derry Dolls’ series of three workshops builds on this previous collaboration and deepens the process with participants. In the workshops facilitated by Conflict Textiles curator Roberta Bacic and Conflict Textiles Fabric Artist Deborah Stockdale, the women drew on their memories of shirt factories and childhood/former years. Using shirt factory fabric, each woman created two outfits for a transnational doll from the Conflict Textiles collection. One outfit was for going dancing; an activity that evoked fond memories for many of the women.

The final selection of dressed dolls was mounted as a collective wall hanging by Deborah Stockdale. It was launched on 26 April 2022 at Pilots Row Youth & Community Centre, Derry / Londonderry, where it will remain on display until December 2022.
Commissioned by: Peace Barriers Programme, Bogside & Brandywell Initiative
Date(s): 9th November 2021 - 26th April 2022
Venue: The Fashion & Textile Design Centre, Derry/Londonderry
31-33 Shipquay Street, Derry/Londonderry, BT48 6DL
Curator: Roberta Bacic assisted by Breege Doherty
Facilitator: Kyra Reynolds, Peace Barriers Programme, Bogside & Brandywell Initiative
Outcome: This initiative deepened the women's understanding of arpillera processes and provided them with a basis to create a collective textile Derry Dolls - Past to Present, themed on their memories of the shirt factory era. Launch of the textile took place at 11am, 26th April at Pilots Row Youth & Community Centre, Derry / Londonderry.




Documents: • Triax Arpillera Dolls: image and description - view