Posted by Andrea Ashfield on 19 December 2018
The works are part of a festive package destined for the Babushkas of Chernobyl, a community of women that defied the authorities and continued to live inside the radioactive area surrounding Reactor No. 4, site of the infamous nuclear explosion. The students, most on the BA (Hons) Textiles and Surface Design degree at the university-level school in Hartlepool printed the towels with personal imagery and stitches using traditional techniques that are part of the Babushka's heritage.
The cloths will be parcelled up with a hand-written message, chocolates and hand-knitted gloves and scarves donated by Stockton-based knitting group From the Heart. Each package will be a personalised gift for the women and men, many of whom are now in their 70s, 80s and 90s and still live within the radioactive 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl. The group form part of a community that refused to stay away, returning to their homes after the explosion, which resulted in radiation contamination estimated to be 400 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The self-settlers continue with their day-to-day lives in ghost villages throughout the zone.
Claire Baker, a lecturer in textiles at The Northern School of Art, organised the embroidery session for students and will personally deliver the packages on 27th December in a trip sponsonsored by specialist travel company chernobylwel.com and supported by the British Council and the Crafts Council. Claire is a regular visitor to the area and has been working on a research project with the Babushkas called 'Embroidery as a Language'.
“These incredible, strong and resilient people, who are not only isolated from the rest of the world but also from each other, are very grateful and excited to receive any visitors, especially from abroad and particularly in winter, as often roads are impassable due to heavy snow and they cannot even get over their own doorsteps," explains Claire. "They say that it is a wonderful thing that they are not forgotten, and at Christmas especially it can be an incredibly lonely time for them. To have personalised yet useful gifts is very touching.” Go to northernart.ac.uk for more information.
