Richard Kofi

✨🌊 Threads 🌊✨
These are images from my presentation at the Valkhof Museum, where I had the honor of sharing the story behind Threads of our Dutch Slavery Past: Gelderland. Across the Netherlands, residents are working together on monumental tapestries that depict the regional history of the colonial slavery past. I was selected to design the tapestry for my home province, Gelderland. For the coming months volunteers are bringing it to life, using techniques like embroidery, quilting, punching, and tufting. Come join us!
In my tapestry design, water carries many stories: from Anna van Vossenburg’s forced journey from Suriname to Arnhem, Quaco’s stolen childhood, to the echoes of the Belanda Hitam - Ghanaian captives who were forced to work for the Dutch colonial army in Indonesia, the KNIL. Around these stories, I created my own fairytale, inspired by Sun Ra’s worldview, cool Parliament-Funkadelic’s album covers, and the underwater mythology of the Detroit techno collective Drexciya. Giant waves swallow the mansions that were made with slavery money. The water holds the pain of the past, but it also represents our power to be reborn and to reweave these histories.
Do you want to contribute to the making of this tapestry? Or just stop by to see the process? Check out the , .arnhem , the , Wageningen University, and many other locations.
It’s a great honor to be selected for this project, following in the footsteps of incredible artists like who did it for Utrecht, Marcos Kueh for South Holland, Amber Hyacinth for Overijssel and who designed the very first one for Groningen.
It’s mind-blowing to realize that so many volunteers are dedicating their time to bringing this design to life. I am deeply grateful.
The real nice photos were made by during the Kunst Cafe by
Shout out to the amazing .rienks and