THE PLEASURE PATCHWORK
Come touch, fumble and feel The Pleasure Patchwork at Dorwich House Musuem in London 15- 17th, May 2025, 67 Kingston Vale, SW15 3RN.
The program features an interactive talk on the findings of Rosalind's PhD about Touch in the dance of Contact Improvisation, live performances with the musician Ansuman Biswas and dancer, Zoë Solomons, and a crochet workshop with Rosalind's collaborator, the sculptor Katharina Krenkel. Please feel warmly invited to come and interact with this wormy underworld and to join in any part.
Please see the full line-up of events here:
Please see the full line-up of events here:
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, wondering what pleasure I know, and through touch, 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.
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.
Featuring:
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:
Berlin 10999:
Drawings and designs by Rosalind Holgate Smith
You are invited to take part in this project by
Attending a workshop
Workshops involve guided explorations in movement and touch to cultivate receptivity and a sense of listening through the skin. The skin opens the doorway to feel the whole body and as we experiment in gesturing out to the world we will explore how much we can feel in movement and action. You will also be invited to dive into questions and conversations about pleasure. Through writing and sometimes audio recording we will document, and archive our experiences that may feature in our later exhibits.
If you have a group and would like to book a workshop please get in touch to arrange: rosalindholgatesmith@gmail.com
Crocheting a piece of the blanket...
If you know how to crochet or would like to make your piece of the patchwork at home, we will send you Pleasure Kit in the post. For €30 your pack will include the wool (you can choose from a selection of skin colours), a crochet hook, instruction pattern and your pleasure interview. We ask you to post this back to us when you have completed your part. We also have a number of videos and online resources to support you in the making that you can access on this page or via our instagram.
Thank you!
How to begin to crochet you piece of the pleasure patchwork....
Photography and crochet models by Katharina Krenkel
