Striking Attitudes : UNDERCOVER | CUDD

This was a complete first for me, working with a dance company to design and make a blanket to be part of their promenade-style performance and installation! Cool eh!

“UNDERCOVER – A chronicle for our times, a response to the pandemic and climate change, a giant tapestry of stories in Welsh and English inspired by the Welsh blanket, from Welsh Creative Artists and Older Citizens, led by Artistic Director, Caroline Lamb with Janet Fieldsend and Aleksandra Nikolajev Jones.
A large-scale work from Striking Attitudes. A walk-through promenade-style performance and installation of Dance, Theatre, Photography, Poetry, Videography, Music and Textiles, in North and South Wales in Spring 2023.”

There’s a beautiful record of the performance on the Striking Attitudes website here, please take a look. Photos by Michal Iwanowski.

This was a vast production with community projects, a number of films being produced as well as a final performance over three days in the Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff. For me I focused on the community project that were being held by Iestyn Tyne. A poet who was leading creative writing workshops in north and south Wales. I took the words that had be written and printed them onto the handwoven blanket. The poems were a response to the pandemic as well as our current climate. I loosely based the design of the blanket around the idea of windows and I wanted the words to flow from each window to the next. I loved the idea of using the individuals handwritting for the prints.

The performance was powerful, interesting and varied. I really hope that the blanket added to the performance.