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Tuesday Greenidge is a regular at the North Kensington library, where you will often find his seam in his large common office. When we meet in February, it wears a made up, not by coincidence, by Grenfell Cloth. Greenidge, a textile artist, has lived in this western London district for over 30 years. During the last eight, she worked on her greatest masterpiece, a work of art suspended 220 feet per 72 feet: the short grenfell commemorative.
“We wanted to commemorate the people we know,” explains Greenidge. His daughter, Charlie, was one of the survivors on the night of June 14, 2017 when Grenfell Tower, a block of 24 -storey social housing in the center of the community, turned on. The fire took 72 lives, causing one of the greatest human rights crises in recent British history. Subsequent research has discovered that 70% of social housing rounds in the United Kingdom have fire safety problems such as flammable coating, ineffective fire doors or broken emergency lighting.
After seeing the offerings of flowers, teddies and hearts – the green heart in particular has become synonymous with the Grenfell community – left as tribute in the neighboring streets after the disaster, Greenidge was inspired to immortalize the tragedy in a courtyard. “There were clothes that had just thrown in the region,” she said. “When we tide them, we mourn. They were rags. We have something beautiful. ”
Drawing reference from AIDS commemorative duvet Pioneer by American activist Cleve Jones as a memorial for those who died of the disease (to which Greenidge contributed during the visit of the London lighthouse clinic located next to Grenfell in the 1990s), Greenidge wanted to create a work of art in the dimensions of the tower block which could be easily separated for individual commemorations. Parts from the courtyard have since been exhibited at the Methodist church in Notting Hill, at the Palais d'Alexandra and Birmingham Courtpoint Festival. Greenidge began to seek the technique of American jelly, where packets of strips of pre-cut fabric are sewn together. She describes the process as “# Rags-to-Ritsch-Kitsch-Bitsch”, with most of the original fabric from leaves and old shirts.
The first panel – A 12 -feet by 12 feet room with a patch dedicated to Raymond “Moses” Bernard, who died alongside six other victims in his floor apartment – was completed in 2018. Once “nomadic group” in Greenidge, has become a unit of 15 to 20 people who meet at the library each week. Everyone is welcome, from fashion students to members of the Whitstable blasphemous embroidery group, whose tapestries promote the properties of the juron. The hearts and flowers of the hook of the development of communities in Brazil and Mumbai have also been received.
More recently, Greenidge has teamed up with the Quilters' Guild, establishing a network of bees in the country's libraries to help finish the courtyard in time for the 10th anniversary of Grenfell in 2027, and also to ensure that community professions continue to end. Colorful and eclectic, the shortpoint went to 220 feet by 12 feet 50 feet wide on the Greenidge target. A tapestry records the names of the 72 victims; A sign – “forget me” – recalls the building's shaped structure in a tide. Greenidge points to another small patch sporting the northern star “to free up spirits” and a praise on the theme of boxing for Tony Disson, who was a coach in a small boxing club on the lower floors of Grenfell. They lost the account of the number of hearts. The objective is to suspend the finished court in an important place and to photograph each heart for an upcoming book.
Greenidge’s first collaborator was Alexandra Brown, a Savile Row tailor who taught him to sew. The pair met in 2012 at 240ProjectA local health center for people affected by homelessness and exclusion that Brown volunteered and is now a wellness agent. “The healing which took place by the manufacture of the shortpoint is something that cannot be put into words,” she says. “Tuesday gathered the community at a time of great sadness, transmuting sorrow and creating the most beautiful tribute.” Additional support came from the BBC radio presenter, Eddie Nestor, whose call to volunteers and fabric donations in 2022 launched Sweet For Justice, a collective of “craftsmen” – where craftsmanship meets activism – “artivists” and “couples” contributing to the courtepointe.
“What I have always loved in the Courtpointe is that, in a space that is very noisy, very chaotic and became quite performative, it was this calm thing in the background, offering people a moment of peace,” explains Kimia Zabihyan de Grenfell next to parentsA group representing the bereaved families. Later this month, the group will present an installation at the Triennal Milan Cities Exhibition, where the courtyard will be displayed in front of its most general public to date.
“It will be global,” explains Greenidge, who underlines the flammable coating – turned out to be the “main cause of rapid spread” in Grenfell – as a global problem. Of the 4,613 buildings greater than 11m in the United Kingdom which were identified as having a non-compliant coating, only 1,350 finished the correction. The crisis extends to India, China and Australia, where a 23 -storey building has been erased by a coating fire three years before Grenfell.
The exhibition in Milan follows the recent announcement of the British government that Grenfell's structure will be demolished, a process that should take two years. “I am not one of the bereaved people, I am not one of the survivors,” explains Greenidge. “But it's not sure. He falls. Transform it into a wonderful space where we can all unite. ” The courtyard, she says, “is part of an inherited project. We would like to encourage him to continue as a way for people to understand social justice – and social justice begins at home. ”
Cities is in Triennale Milano from May 13 to November 9, Triennale.org/en/events/ités
