Textile Art Project “The Tapesrty of Life”
British-Ukrainian Creative Community Workshop 2023-2024, Hexham, Northumberland
Project leaders:
Yuliia Achkasova- author of the idea, creator (artist, designer, architect)
Nataliia Petryc – co-creator(artist, psychologist)
Kath Prandle – organizer of meetings and project financing (teacher, activist)
Project participants: Wendy Bredy, Alec Ireland, Chris Andrews, Hanna Udovenko, Inna Kostiura, Judith Singleton, Jenny Kirkpatrick, Lya Vollering, Paula Little, Millie Cook, Veronica DeSully, Barbara Murdy, Olha Samusieva.
Workshop content:
- A meeting about the PRESENT. Exploring the symbol of the tree in Celtic and Slavic cultures. Exploring the connections between humans and trees using meditation, storytelling and tactile contact with natural objects.
- A meeting about the PAST. Exploring connections with our own Family Trees. Old traditions and stories. Our roots. Traditional rites.
- A meeting about the FUTURE. Exploring symbols in our dreams that connect us with future.
Meditation about future envisage. Creation a pictures of the future. - A meeting about ”As Above So Below”. Connecting the past and the future through the present.
- A meeting about WHOLENESS. Singing of traditional Ukrainian and British songs, connecting pieces of fabric, individual parts and components of the tapestry into a whole.
- Continuing to work on connecting the pieces into the big picture.
The first meting and discussion of the art project took place on August 19th 2023 in Queens Hall Library
The presentation of the art project was dedicated to the 2nd anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine and took place on February 23th, 2024 in Hexham Abbey.
Being far from Ukrainian land, Ukrainians feel disconnected from their roots.
Our grandmothers have used patchwork, tapestry and embroidery techniques for years to overcome the pain of difficult times and to align the family space and to heal the lineage.
The idea to create The TAPESTRY OF LIFE and to combine traditional women’s handicraft practices and modern artistic techniques and designs grows into a joint Ukrainian-British creative art-project.
We decided to create a chronicle of our experience of this time we are sharing together and realize the value of what is happening.
And It will also strengthen interpersonal ties between the Ukrainian and British communities in Hexham.
About Symbols:
The Tree is a powerful and multifaceted symbol of life, development, growth, continuity, sustainability and constancy. Symbol of clan and family. Two trees intertwined together, sycamore and oak, symbolize strong friendship and interaction between the British people and Ukrainians, and every leaf on the tree is connected to the whole, to the source of life.
The composition of the art object conventionally consists of three levels. Present, Past and Future.
The Sun in the Branches in the center symbolizes the Present, what is happening now between us, our experience of interaction in creative process and the positive energy that people feel at the same time. The left side symbolizes Britain and here we can see Hexham Abbey, Hadrian’s Wall, Sycamore tree, Northumbrian grasses, meadows and flowers. The right part represents Ukraine and here we can see the Kyiv Lavra, Hosprom bilding in Kharkiv and the monument to the founders of Kyiv, Dnieper river and Hoverla mountain.
The Tree Roots symbolize our past, connections with our ancestors and the earth. These are our cultural codes, what nourishes us, helps us to grow, gives us strength. Among the roots there are artifacts of the past – Ukrainian Scythian stone guardian statues on the right side and the engraved stones of Northumberland on the left.
The upper part of the textile art is birds flying up- It’s the Future. It seems as if the leaves turn into birds. We don’t know what the future will be, but we are able to build a new reality in co-creation, supporting and strengthening each other.
While working on the project, we decided to go through all the stages and deeply feel what the symbols mean to us. We looked closely into the present through contact with nature, we immersed ourselves in the past in meditation, talked about traditions and dreamed about the future. All this allowed us to unite into a group of like-minded people.
It was very important for Ukrainian project participants to feel safe and supported. We found a lot in common with British people. In fact, our art project became a wonderful experience of how by doing collective creativity, pleasing and supporting each other, you can find a positive solution, a way out not only from the traumatic, difficult experiences of war, but also from any difficult life circumstances.
The miracle happened to us at that moment when we connected with our souls by sewing together pieces of fabric as fragments of our different life experiences. The miracle of healing and the miracle of Life.
We are thinking that the project fully lived up to its name.
