The V&A East Storehouse will host an art workshop as part of the East London Art Prize events programme to explore Hackney’s local history this month.
The workshop invites participants to create a fabric parachute map using local textiles – a nod to Hackney’s ‘rag and bone’ trade, where fabric offcuts were collected from factories and sold in smaller markets to avoid waste.
Artist Mo Langmuir, winner of the East London Art Prize, explained: “The rag trade … was based on the waste, which was productive and economically viable for people to make a living whilst also being better for the environment.”
Sustainability is part of the V&A East Storehouse ethos “down to every detail”, said a V&A employee who wished to remain anonymous. “Our core value is sustainability, and it has to be done actively.”
The workshop will use the V&A East’s Anthropocene collection, referencing periods during which humanity began to significantly impact the planet, to display “material extinction”, says Langmuir. It will also use cyanotype printing, the earliest form of photography, “to make these collages that explore the way that people first think of climate change – and then go deeper and see how it relates to everyday experience”.
The workshop will be led by Mo Langmuir in collaboration with Bow Arts on 29th October between 10am and 1pm. The workshop is free of charge and open to participants of all ages. No art experience required. All art supplies will be provided.
