Songs of Flax – Chapter 3 : Over the Heckle

Workshop develop and hosted with Liza Prins and Bergur Anderson
April 2024
A Tale of a tub, Rotterdam (NL)

Practicing with our hands and voices, we explored collective singing and embodied work rhythms set by plant fibers.

This third and final chapter was brought forth by the soft, combing gestures of heckling flax to separate longer fibers from the coarser ones, the last stage before it can be spun into a yarn. Sitting around a heckling comb was once a perfect occasion to share stories and gossip, something the Dutch saying ‘to pull someone over the heckle’ hints at. Our heckling work was supported by a melody composed by Bergur Anderson and words by Karen Brodine through her poem “Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking”.

Songs of Flax is a research project by Liza Prins and Marie Ilse Bourlanges that delves into the material and historical realities of processing flax, a plant cultivated for its fibers known as linen. The project aims to identify parallels between current and historical labor conditions and protest strategies through song.

Pictures by Kyle Tryhorn.

With the support of Mondriaan Fonds and co-funded by the European Union.
Many thanks to Lisanne Jansen, Julia Geerlings, Isabelle Sully and Erika Roux and all the participants.

Postcard riso-printed at Terry Bleu, Amsterdam.