Recolory

Recolory is an experiment which searches for the connection between people and their natural environment through a participatory performance. Natural dyeing as a collaboration with local flora, that provides space for multisensory experiences and sharing stories.

The Cook – (transforming) - Anouck Hus
The Forager – (collecting) - Elina Alekseeva
The Gardener – (caring) - Jorick de Quaasteniet

Coloring with plants is a widely used process in the textile tradition. But unlike its historical application, it stays detached from people who know very little about the origins of the coloring elements. We question the utilitarian use of natural pigments and invite people to participate in the creation of color. Collecting dyeing components from our immediate environments in Scheveningen – in the practices of foraging in the nature, harvesting from the plant dye garden of the See Lab, and gathering natural kitchen leftovers, we want to bring back a closer interchange between people, local plants, and textiles.

3 new textile professions: a Gardener, a Forager, and a Cook, provide visitors with a multi-sensory experience of plant dye elements to make a personal selection from - through taste, scent, and touch. Instead of the search for perfect color, we invite intuition and curiosity. In the playful and therapeutic act of physical interaction between people’s emotions and living elements, the color is winessing and recording this interchange.

Inspired by plant symbolism and medicinal plant knowledge, we see this experiment as a possibility to create new narratives through personal memories. Interacting with plants in multiple ways, the visitors can select a “bouquet” of their stories and emotions, into which we will recolor the fabric, not knowing beforehand the result of the dye. The colored pieces of textiles are stitched into a growing art piece, a collective emotional landscape of the city community.