Flax, baby! Flax! [interludes]

installation at A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam – August 2024
by Marie Ilse Bourlanges and Liza Prins

Besides two performances, Flax, baby! Flax! [interludes] consisted of an in-situ installation in which a series of sculptural reinterpretations of pre-industrial flax tools surrounded our fresh harvest of flax. Made from solid elm wood, wrought iron and flax fibers, the tools are sculpted to merge with the performers’ bodies, intentionally blurring boundaries between plant, workers’ body and tool, and highlight ambiguities between care and violence. 

[ripple 1] elm, vintage zinc bucket, flax braids (Bourlanges with Prins)
[ripple 2] 19th century wrought iron nails, hand carved elm (Bourlanges with Prins)
[brake 1] vintage flax brake, steel stands, working gloves (Bourlanges and Prins)
[brake 2] adjusted and carved willow clogs, leather (Bourlanges and Prins)
[scutching board and knife 1] hand carved elm, adjusted willow clogs, leather (Bourlanges with Prins)
[scutching board and knife 2 & 3] hand carved elm, working gloves and knee pads (Bourlanges and Prins)
[heckle] hand carved elm, vintage wrought iron nails, flax braids, steel stand (Bourlanges and Prins)
[flax] flax cultivated and retted on a plot near Flevopark, steel cable, tensioning straps (Bourlanges and Prins)

Many thanks to Olga Micinska for her guidance in our learning to carve wood, Camille Dolibeau for her advice with accentuating the tools’ sonic qualities, André Avelas for his valuable tips and machinery to facilitate the making process, Jilles Scherjon for his help with realizing adjusted pairs of clogs, Sabin Garea and the KABK wood workshop for their welcoming support, Gwion Lopez for crafting beautiful stands of steel for us, and the team of A Tale of a Tub.

Photography by Kyle Tryhorn

Made with the support of Mondriaan Fonds, Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsdeel Zuid and the EU-council.