de S+oplap
community project and installation,
New Metropolis, Pakhuis de Zwijger

material audio and textile (cotton)
size collaborative patches, 350 x 60 cm;
audio, 7 soundpieces

This project was generously supported by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Creative Industries Fund NL (Stimuleringsfonds) and Pakhuis de Zwijger

Special thanks to
Sound production Chris Rijksen
Photography studio Masha Bakker 
Reportage photography Patricia Wolf 
Text Margarita Osipian Marketing Makerting

Listen to de S+oplap podcast
(in Dutch) at: Spotify, Itunes or Radio Public

D E   S + O P L A P

The stoplap is a Dutch term for the ‘darning sampler’, which young girls (between 12 and 15 years old) created in order to practice a variety of needlework techniques and darning stitches. The stoplap was common between the 17th and 20th century, and functioned as a way to teach women, especially orphans, a trade that would allow them to earn money independently.
    The very nature of the stoplap, as a space for both precision and imperfection, is at the heart of this project. Patches that were stitched too far to the left; patches that didn’t quite fit; patches that were never finished at all. These pieces of handwork and their symbolism—embodying perfection and imperfection simultaneously—can be extended beyond their historical moment to a current generation of girls in Amsterdam.
    The central elements of this project are long pieces of fabric which are printed with a graphic pattern inspired by old darning samplers—comprised of gaps and holes, a contemporary translation of a stoplap. Over the course of a series of working sessions at New Metropolis in Nieuw-West, teenage girls from the neighborhood were asked to restore the incomplete prints. The conversations between the girls were recorded as a sound document.
    The installation consisted of six large collaborative patches, the documented conversations and original darning samplers.