the tights ball: the royal central school of speech & drama and camden council              across Camden streets and libraries                                             march - june 2014

   duration: 4 months     

 

a sinister ball has begun rolling around the capital of england, growing bigger, becoming more ominous, more terrifying than anyone could possibly imagine…

 

made of the most innocuous, gentle and pretty of clothing items, tights and stockings, the tights ball is gathering pace, sweeping up stories and personal memories … 

 

every week millions of pairs of ladies tights are consigned to the bottom drawer or the bin.  a large number contain nylon, a non-biodegradable material that often ends up in landfill. during spring 2013, artists lenka horakova and anna kompaniets created ‘the tights ball’, consisting of over 350 pairs of tights, stockings and socks, each carrying an individual memory, a fleeting story of personal time… 

 

tights can be seen as beautiful, but they can also carry sinister messages for some, and for our planet, exposing how easy it is to be fooled into thinking that the small things don’t matter or make little impression… 

 

the ball will be a growing physical manifestation of the impact even the smallest decision makes on our planet, expanding exponentially as we move around the city - collecting broken tights, stockings and personal stories, this is a beautifully horrifying art intervention 

 

initially commissioned by the london borough of lewisham to raise awareness of textile recycling, with funding support from arts council england, kompaniets, horakova and platform-7 set out to discover the politics of tights recycling by collecting old tights.  what was revealed was not what was expected [click].  

 

during 2014 the royal central school of speech and drama ma music theatre and the london borough of camden will become the latest collaborators on the tights ball journey. with interventions in libraries and on the streets of camden, used tights can be donated in boxes across the borough, before being re-purposed through free workshops and becoming part of a major musical performance, with working bin truck!   

 

original re-imagining ladies tights  |  blog  |  akleriah | case studies | new website 2014