Book now
Book NowPast 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 and is accessible from street level.
This event lasts approximately 2 hours. There is a scheduled short break between the performance and talk, but attendees are welcome to take as many breaks as needed during the event. The event is partially seated, with some standing room
If you have particular access requirements, please let us know in advance of the event (preferably 2 weeks prior) and we will endeavour to make suitable provision.
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 basi
The Flax Exchange performs Flax Suite, a set of making actions exploring folk cultures and labour politics of traditional textile production.
The Flax Exchange is an ongoing community project led by artist Shane Waltener. It advocates sustainable textile practices, with a focus on growing flax from seed to process into linen thread and championing ancient craft techniques through the medium of performance. Sustainable textile processes and soil-to-soil systems have been crafted into a series of live ‘making-actions’ by Shane Waltener and members of the exchange, highlighting the repetitive, rhythmic, musical nature of textile-making that keep the maker rooted in the pattern of production.
Flax Suite (The Whitechapel Variation Reprised) features a reworking of the original Flax Suite, devised as part of a year-long residency in 2023–24 at Craft Central and Poplar Union. This iteration is a variation of a score developed during a four-month residency at Park Primary School, Newham, including song, movement and dance, developed by musician Zoë Gilmour and dance artist Laura Glaser in collaboration with 90 Year 3 pupils. The piece is performed at Whitechapel Gallery with accompanying soundscore by Elisha Lewis.
For Craft Week the performance is followed by a discussion chaired by Designer and Researcher Shai Akram with artist Shane Waltener, members of The Flax Exchange, Curator Kirsty Lowry and Art Specialist Teacher Annie Rawle. Attendees have the opportunity to hand-process flax into linen cordage.
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
London Craft Week is a city-wide festival celebrating exceptional craftsmanship, across multiple sectors and disciplines, from around the world. Through a curated programme of events, Craft Week shines a light on the creative talent behind some of the world’s most beautiful objects, telling stories of their inspiration, process and materials.
