loomeweight I is the first in a series of interdisciplinary performance projects created by Patricia Auchterlonie and Hestor Dart. This project began with building an Iron Age style warp-weighted loom. Our loom is made from foraged materials and hung with hagstones (rocks with a single hole worn by the sea). The loom provides the framework for the creation of a tapestry is woven from ‘trash’ or rejected and broken items (e.g. plastic bags, rope, discarded clothing etc). While working, improvised vocalisations are passed between two voices, undergoing microchanges as the project unfolds. These improvised changes will involve very gradual shifts in rhythm, and melody, as well as experimental vocalisations and other non-sung materials.
loomeweight I is a long-form performance piece which slows down the making process utilising pre-industrial, slow techniques and focuses on micro-changes and irregularities. Through this gentle endurance, loomeweight I critiques and questions mass production within late stage capitalism. It also references directly the historical gesture of singing and weaving as a paired pursuit and explores the close relationship between these practises and folk culture / ancient histories. The project highlighted the failures inherent in a system which promotes marketability and consumption over the sustainable processes of creating and community building. There is also exploration of the omnipresent theme of ecological collapse through the re-use of thrown away objects.
Loomeweight I toured in the 2024/2025 season, performing at the following:
Eavesdropping Festival, Cafe Oto | 23&24.03.2024
Bonnington Centre, London | 24.05.2024
Starpelpa Festival, Riga | 30&31.05.2024
Helgi's Bar, London | 13.07.2024
Nozstock Festival, 18-21.07.2024
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival | 22.11.2024
Bonnington Centre, London | 18.01.2025
what is it like to watch the work?
(in someone else's words):
I was also taken by “loomeweight” – a two-part performance by Patricia Auchterlonie and Hestor Dart. The duo sang and improvised while weaving on a loom they constructed from materials they foraged in the forest. Singing while weaving is not new, with many prominent songs coming from Scotland and the Outer Hebrides. The vulnerable, hocketing improvisation came in short, sporadic phrases that bounced off the walls of the room, leaving us waiting to see what would be woven and sung in the next phrase. The performance was the pinnacle of intimacy, and bearing witness to the beauty of their experimentation was insight into the beginning of a long and beautiful collaboration. The duo hopes to expand the work to installation-based spaces, and for each performance to be a continuation of the last, both in the music and on the loom, which is something we don’t often see within Western classical or even experimental music.
- about our performance at Eavesdropping festival, published in I care if you listen, written by Michelle Hromin
inspiration for the project:
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the warp-weighted loom
a Saxon loom weight in the windsor museum
greek weavers working on a warp-weighted loom, as depicted on the side of a vase
Waulking the tweed in the Outer Hebrides