Archival Site of Collective Histories

As part of Wild Summer of Art 2026, we hosted a Batik workshop at Brutus Rotterdam. We explored the Indonesian traditional wax-resist dyeing process, Batik, translating stories, memories and ancestral knowledge into writings and drawings on fabric using Tjanting, a wax pen. These symbols and writings slowly emerged through the dyeing process, transforming hidden histories into a tangible and embodied experience of archiving. As we waited for the visuals to appear, we had a community dinner with drinks to close the workshop.

Brutus Rotterdam · Wild Summer of Art — August 2026

Participants drawing batik at long outdoor tables in the Brutus yard, protest banners strung behind them

A hand drawing hot wax onto white cloth with a brass tjanting

A long white cloth laid down the tables, covered end to end in wax drawings

Tjanting pens resting in a pan of melted wax beside the workshop notes

A gloved hand lowering the waxed cloth into a bucket of indigo dye

Finished batik hanging from the scaffold, white drawings glowing against indigo

Archiving the Transmission of Knowledge

Our work was part of the exhibition Not My Knowledge, curated by this year’s Close-Up team in collaboration with Allard Pierson Special Collections. The exhibition questions: what is considered legitimate knowledge, and why? Our tent tapestry features the results of the batik and embroidery workshops we have been hosting the last couple of months — we would like to thank all the participants for their amazing work. Further, we invited the audience to embroider their thoughts, experiences, stories or knowledge on the tent and a bigger archive.

VOX-POP UvA Amsterdam · Not My Knowledge — June 2026

Batik tent tapestry flowing through the exhibition space

The batik tent installation with table and cushions inside

Batik and patchwork fabrics from the workshops

Visitors embroidering their stories onto the tent

Dyed batik fabric with stitched pockets and embroidery hoops

Texture of Silence

A workshop in collaboration with Pulp Collective which reflected on the materialisation of censorship through textiles. By embroidering together, we reflected on pieces of censored textile art, how textile can serve as a messenger for censored voices, and how textile is central in transmitting cultural knowledge.

Nyata Collective × Pulp · De Voorkamer Utrecht — June 2026

Participants embroidering together around a low table

Workshop table with embroidery hoop, drawings and teapot

Embroidery hoop with the stitched words ‘drowning and unable to reach the surface’

Hands stitching blue thread onto red printed textile

Embroidered words ‘continuous self-experiencing’ and ‘not belonging’ on fabric

Anarchival Pocket Making

On Friday the 12th of June we hosted an Anarchival Pocket Making Workshop at Stadskeuken Arnhem. It was a lovely afternoon where we shared stories of textile experiences we had in the past and how they influence us today. How are textile skills rooted in our families and daily lives? How can we catch these memories and stories in a pocket to embody and preserve them?

Stadskeuken Arnhem — June 2026

Participants embroidering fabric pockets at the workshop table

Teal fabric pocket with layered stitched appliqué

Purple patterned fabric pocket with couched gold threads

Embroidery hoop holding layered blue fabric patches

Spring workshop Batik at Plaatsmaken

View your body as an archival site: which intergenerational stories are nested there? We looked into textiles as an archive, a silent witness of daily life. What intergenerational knowledge is embedded in our bodies, held by what we wear? How can we bring invisible voices to life? During the workshop we translated stories into shapes and transferred them onto fabric, created Batik prints that slowly appeared by dying. While waiting for the results we made embroideries and slow stitches; transmissions of knowledge in textiles. What do you want to archive for the future? What has been passed down from generations? We built a mutual exchange of knowledge between participants and grew a collection of stories.

Plaatsmaken Arnhem · Time Out / Tune In by Lenn Cox — April 2026

Close-up of batik wax lines on cross-stitched fabric

Photography Rosanne van Wijk — Spring workshop Batik facilitated by Nyata Collective, Asha Victoria and Amber Zara van den Pangaard. Part of Time Out / Tune In programme by Lenn Cox, Plaatsmaken. April 2026.

Anarchival Embroidery

How can we preserve our memories and reveal gaps within an archive on a tapestry? By embroidering messages and symbols on batik tapestries made with previous workshop participants, we enrich the textile with more encounters and sharing of knowledge. Experimenting with mending and stitching techniques like Sashiko, the result is one large collective tapestry forming as a living archive.

Nyata Collective × Platform Post — April 2026

An outdoor table laid with the blue batik tapestry and wooden embroidery hoops, waiting for participants

The workshop table set up on the lawn in front of an apartment block

A hand stitching a small circle inside a wooden hoop on the batik cloth

Hands working a hoop with white thread, scissors beside them, the cloth reading “one point of view”

A plant embroidered in white thread across the cloud-like resist shapes of the indigo cloth

Batik Writing

We hosted Batik Workshops at No Other Option Amsterdam and De Voorkamer Utrecht, where we redefine modes of archiving by writing, drawing, and creating stamps. We were amazed to see the creativity blooming from every participant, impactful conversations and the collaboration that can be seen (and felt) from the batik tapestry.

No Other Option Amsterdam · De Voorkamer Utrecht — February 2026

Pale batik cloth covered in white wax drawings — spirals, small figures and scattered symbols

Participants gathered around a table working on a large indigo cloth, drawings pinned up behind them

The finished batik tapestry hanging in folds, dense with white handwriting — “foraging”, “my mother”, “reborn”

Batik cloth with a cross of small stamped squares and the wax-written words “Grabit” and “Drookit”

The same tapestry from further back, the writing running on into “remembrance”, “safety net” and “political”

The dyed cloth strung up across a window to dry, plastic sheeting spread on the floor below

Do(n’t) Write Outside the Margins

A cyanotype and weaving workshop for the students at Graphic Design ArtEZ Arnhem. We questioned the digital binary system on Instagram and broke the boundaries of information censorship by revealing silences, gaps, trauma, and pain, serving as a space of refusal and resistance. What is inside the margins and who is placed outside?

Graphic Design ArtEZ Arnhem — January 2026

nyata collective