Curtain Wall (2020)

The Shadows Assembly is a collective that was founded in early 2019 when three textile workshops in Amsterdam Nieuw-West (Bijzonder Amsterdams Atelier West, Ru Paré Community, Buurthuis Het Anker) and the artist Hana Miletić came together in art center De Appel to learn a new textile technique of sun prints on fabric. The group printed everyday household and craft-related objects on leftover and discarded materials from their individual workshops. Together they created something new: a curtain and a publication, which are now on show in the exhibition Refresh Amsterdam. During the patchwork assembly the people from the different workshops exchanged their knowledge and skills of different sewing techniques. This had as a side effect that the participants got to know each other better. As a collective, The Shadows Assembly aims to explore the role of textile practices in contemporary art and their (social) relevance for different communities. The name refers to the often hidden and underappreciated labour of housework.