Past Event
The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
– Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
– This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
– This event takes place in Gallery 2 at Whitechapel Gallery, located on the ground floor. There is accessible access to this space.
– Please note that the gallery is closed to the public on Mondays, so the event is for invited audiences.
– The performance will last approximately 45 minutes. The event is partially seated, with a mixture of standing, seating on benches or the floor.
– A quiet space will be available, located on the ground floor in an area next to the café (The café will be closed, refreshments available in nearby venues).
– We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
– We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
Transport
– To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
– Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
– Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
The Flax Exchange performs Flax Suite (The Whitechapel Variation), a set of making actions exploring folk cultures and labour politics of traditional textile production.
Flax Exchange is an ongoing community project led by artist Shane Waltener advocating sustainable textile practices, with specific focus on growing flax from seed to process into linen thread.
The performance features a reworking of the original Flax Suite, devised as part of a year-long community project in 2023-4. This iteration has been developed during a four-month residency with Year 3 pupils at Park Primary School, Newham. The work includes song, movement and dance developed by musician Zoë Gilmour and dance artist Laura Glaser in collaboration with 90 x Year 3 pupils. The work will be performed at Whitechapel Gallery by Flax Exchange members and the school children, with accompanying audio by Elisha Millard, to an invited audience from the school community.
Project led by Kirsty Lowry, Curator: Schools & Teachers, Whitechapel Gallery and Annie Rawle, Art Specialist Teacher, Park Primary School, Newham.
Flax Exchange is a community project led by artist Shane Waltener which originated in Walton-on-the-Naze in 2022, moved to Harwich for the Arts Festival in 2023 and to the Isle of Dogs and Poplar in 2024.
The project was conceived by the artist in partnership with Eleanor Brown at The nOse, a bookshop and project space in Walton.
Flax Exchange advocates sustainable textile practices by engaging local communities in growing their own fabric. It aims to prompt a renewed engagement with natural resources, landscape and environment, remembering and reimagining social histories through traditional and experimental textile making processes.
The project was inspired by soil to soil textile practices and textile fibersheds, a term coined by sustainability campaigner Rebecca Burgess describing networks connecting growers, makers and consumers.
Core to the Flax Exchange is collaboration, conversation, skills exchange and embodied making with regular workshops and rehearsals with community groups, volunteers and now a school.
Commissioned artists in the project so far include dance artist Laura Glaser, musicians Elisha Millard and Otto Willberg as well as performance artist and musician Merlin Nova and musician Zoe Glimour.
#flaxexchange
Shane Waltener is an artist based in London and Essex, whose practice is rooted in ideas of ecology, skills exchange and the sharing of cultural and social histories that relate to craft. With an interest in movement and dance, he explores means of choreographing making through improvisation, score writing and material engagement.
He is co-founder Common Agency Projects with dance artist Laura Glaser, a member of Ambient Jam Ensemble with Entelechy Arts, an associate lecturer at the University of the Arts London and resident artist at Stave Hill Ecological Park.
@shanewaltener
