Can You Draw a River?

This large textile artwork was woven on a transportable, folding loom to allow participants across three Hertfordshire communities to work collaboratively on one piece. It takes its shape from a sketched response that Alice’s father made during a drawn conversation in the later stages of dementia when he had become non-verbal. The warp and weft of the weave are made from his shirts, which were cut and sewn into 600m of fabric for the project.

Participants worked in a fluid way, choosing which areas to work on, picking colours and bringing their own creative style to the work.  Some sections are very neat, while others are more meandering, imprecise and tactile – reflecting the ever-changing nature of rivers in the natural world.  Through collective participation and individual expression, this piece transforms the experience of a single individual into a celebration and a shared voice for people affected by dementia.

The artwork was made as part of The Ripple Effect Project, which ran in Spring 2024 across three Hertfordshire communities and included people experiencing dementia, their carers and support staff. Inspired by the theme of ‘water’, Alice Blackstock led participants through a series of targeted creative activities designed to encourage interaction, self-expression and community-building, culminating in the creation of Can You Draw a River?  In addition to the display, the project also features a high-quality digital version of the artwork, a short ‘making of’ documentary and a riverside trail.

Alice will be leading three sessions at Drawing Room in Autumn 2024 for Re-Discovery, our creative group for those affected by dementia.  The hands-on sessions will be inspired by the Can You Draw a River? project, continuing the conversations and activities explored with the Hertfordshire communities.

Alice Blackstock is an artist, educator and caregiver from Belfast. She crafts tangible imagery that captures human experiences and fleeting moments in time. Alice uses drawing, sound and textiles which she sees as a soft, non-aggressive and nostalgic medium. Her most recent work ‘Can you draw a river?’ is a woven cloth piece which has been made in collaboration with those living with dementia and is inspired by a drawn conversation between Alice and her father. This conversation used imagery instead of words as her dad was non-verbal due to dementia. As an educator, Alice is passionate about further and community education. She is inspired by those striving to discover new skills regardless of barriers to learning.

‘Can You Draw a River?’ was facilitated by Drawing Voices, an arts organisation that brings together artists and non-artists to weave their individual experiences, stories and voices into collaborative, high-quality artworks. Each piece is designed to make its creators proud and to prompt audiences to pause, reflect and think. In 2024, we’re presenting ‘The Ripple Effect’, a project which saw the team working with people affected by dementia to create the textile artwork, ‘Can You Draw a River?’.