-
A stay at Houey Hong

For 3 months I spent time in the forest of Houey Hong at the vocational training centre in Laos, learning about traditional Lao textiles. By learning about the traditional techniques in Laos, I began to understand the interconnectedness between cloth, the weaver, the culture and their environment. The apprenticeship evolved into a connection and communication process with the people at the center.

The patterns I was learning to make became a communication tool on multiple levels. They communicated legends, history, a region/community or a landscape and allowed me to come into dialogue with the weavers about all the above. The cloth and weaving practice connected me to the people and their context. From this experience emerged a documentation film that follows my learning of 3 distinctive patterns (the frog, the naga and the lotus flower), as well as the various textile samples that were produced in the process.
-