Songs of Flax
Year-long 2024
Marie Ilse Bourlanges and Liza Prins have a plot of land on the edge of Flevopark in Amsterdam, where they have been cultivating flax since 2021. While becoming intimately interwoven with the production of linen—with its inherent rhythms and cyclicality—they have become interested in work-songs as tools for social organization and for connecting humans with more than humans. Taking as a starting point the essay ‘Rhythms of Labor’ (Pickering, Robertson & Korczynski, 2013) that investigates singing within the British textile industry, they have been developing a research project and tangible body of work that examines and translates work-songs and their functions. Traditionally, work-songs functioned in three distinctive ways: singing supported the rhythm of manual labor, it alleviated the draining reality of hard work and created a sense of collectivity; often, local gossip was introduced into songs, and workers in the early textile industry found community through singing and working together. Often work-songs aided in consciousness-raising practices and became protest songs along the way.
In this workshop series, we explore the potential of singing at work once again while transforming flax plants into linen fibers. Marie Ilse and Liza will bring their flax harvest from 2023 and specific tools to lead you through the process of rippling, breaking, scutching, and heckling, which traditionally occurred on winter nights after the harvest season had ended.
Chapter 1: A Rippling Melody, 21.01.2024, 2 – 5pm
Chapter 2: Breaking Refrains, 17.03.2024, 2 – 5pm
Chapter 3: Over the Heckle, 14.04.2024, 2 – 5pm