The Pleasure Patchwork is an interactive soft sculpture, a crochet blanket made of worm like, phallic and invaginated forms, that can be turned inside out. Cocks up, down, and enfolded.
Inspired by the skin, the blanket invites touch and explorations in receptivity and pleasure, questioning how much it is possible to feel as we move into the world and go about our everyday actions. Can we stay open and porous as we reach outwardly?
I had the idea to make the blanket inspired by my work as a dancer with Contact Improvisation, Somatic bodywork and my PhD project, in which I have been investigating how touch makes possible encounters with Otherness, at Kingston University in London.
In 2020 I was pleased to meet Katharina Krenkel, a soft sculptor specialist from Saarbrucken and to begin collaborating on the making of The Pleasure Patchwork. A blanket with which it has become possible improvise, play, and explore with other people, what pleasure means? and how it feels?
I have danced alot of with the worm-like pieces of the patchwork, fumbling about and wondering what pleasure I know, and can imagine and experience?
In 2023, we received funding support from Dis-Tanz Solo Fund, Dachverband Deutschland and Saarland arts funding, which supported the purchase of wool supplies to crochet the Pleasure Patchwork and me to host dance workshops and create new performances to feature with and alongside the blanket. In February 2024, we had our first exhibition @GlogauAIR in Berlin and on February 12th 2025 it made its ways to London for the Dancing Otherwise Network Making Change symposium.
Drawings and designs by Rosalind Holgate Smith
The program featured an interactive talk on the findings of Rosalind's PhD about Touch in Contact Improvisation, live performances with the singer and jazz pianist Jingjing Xu and dancer, Zoë Solomons, and a crochet workshop with the sculptor Katharina Krenkel. For an insight into what was realised, in the video below Zoë reflects on dancing with the Pleasure Patchwork and discovering the feeling for an international web of pleasure....
From 24-25th Feb 2024, we exhibited the Pleasure Patchwork@GlogauAIR in Berlin.
Over two days audiences were invited to see the patchwork blanket being sewn together and experience our first pleasure performance concerts. During our open studio hours there was the opportunity also to interact with our growing worm like underworld.
Sculpture: Katharina Krenkel
Musician: Abhishek
Dancers: Lea Fulton, Katarzyna Brzezinska, Katja Richter & Rosalind Holgate Smith
Dramaturgy: Maria Vittoria Caput
Musician: Abhishek
Dancers: Lea Fulton, Katarzyna Brzezinska, Katja Richter & Rosalind Holgate Smith
Dramaturgy: Maria Vittoria Caput
Saturday, 24th February, 3 – 6 pm
Sunday, 25th February, 3 – 7 pm
+ Artist Talk & Q&A 6 pm Entrance: free
Sunday, 25th February, 3 – 7 pm
+ Artist Talk & Q&A 6 pm Entrance: free
@ Glogauer Str. 16, Berlin, 10999
