Dorich House Museum

Join us at Dorich House Museum across three days in May as Kingston University PhD Dance student, Rosalind Holgate-Smith, exhibits the Pleasure Patchwork, an interactive soft sculpture in the form of a crochet blanket made of worm like, phallic and invaginated forms that can be turned inside out. Inspired by the skin, the blanket invites touch and explorations in receptivity and pleasure, questioning how much it is possible to feel in our everyday actions in the world. Over the three days there will be a programme of talks, workshops and performances where you are warmly invited to come and interact with the wormy underworld. Please note, the Pleasure Patchwork will be exhibited in the Modelling Studio throughout all three days other than during the Friday lunchtime Touch Talk.  See the line-up of events below:

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Thursday 15 May

The Pleasure Patchwork Exhibited | 11am – 5pm | Free | Drop in

See and touch the Pleasure Patchwork as it is exhibited in the Modelling Studio. Meet the artists and collaborators behind its construction.

Crochet with Pleasure Workshop | 12 noon – 4pm | £5 | Booking Required

In this workshop, the Artist Katharina Krenkel will guide you to crochet small sculptural toys to fiddle, snuggle and fumble. Starting with a soft smooth perspective, we will explore and consider ways of enfolding, extending and expanding space in the making of our three-dimensional forms. All participants must be able to crochet. Please bring wool and your crochet hook(s) (the smaller the crochet hook in relation to the yarn, the firmer the crocheted piece becomes). 

Friday 16 May

Touch Talk with the Artists | 1pm – 2:30pm | £5 | Booking Required

Over lunchtime, join Rosalind Holgate-Smith around the Dining Room table at Dorich House Museum where the Pleasure Patchwork will be laid out. The talk will begin with time to touch, fumble and feel the fabric and subsequently we will share reflections about touch and the making of the Pleasure Patchwork. In this talk, Rosalind will also be offering insights from her recent PhD research on touch as an encounter with otherness and the vocabulary of touch used in contact improvisation.

Pop-Up Performances | 3pm – 4pm | Free | Drop in

Pop up performances in and around Dorich House Museum relating to the work.

Saturday 17 May

Pleasure Performances | 12 noon – 1pm & 2pm – 3pm | Free | Drop in

Performances featuring live music and dance inviting explorations in pleasure, rest and tactile play. During these performances, crochet artist Katherina Krenkel will be sewing more parts of the Pleasure Patchwork together. Come and watch the blanket grow!

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The Pleasure Patchwork represents a collaboration between Dance Artist and Choreographer Rosalind Holgate-Smith, and Sculptor Katharina Krenkel.

Featuring:
Musician: Ansuman Biswas
Dancers:  Rosalind Holgate Smith, Katja Richter and Zoe Solomons 

Instagram: @rosalindholgatesmith, @kittys_fuzzy_world, @pleasure_patchwork

Websites:

https://rosalindholgate-smith.com/the-pleasure-patchwork

https://www.katharina-krenkel.de

Rosalind Holgate-Smith is a dancer and choreographer based in Berlin, Germany. She investigates how touch makes possible encounters with Otherness, and the vocabulary of touch used in Contact Improvisation. She is currently a PhD candidate at Kingston University.

Katharina Krenkel is a crochet sculptor and graphic artist based in Saarbrucken, south Germany. She works with lines of the thread, the ink brush, the pencil, and embroidery needle. Her art which takes time, explores everyday challenges and prompts a humorous engagement with the body, the domestic, order and history.