The flying ants and the beauty of ice
Heidi Pietarinen and Eija Timonen
Abstract: Namibian artist Lena Tsueb’s embroidered work Flying Ants (2016) inspired two Finnish artists, Heidi Pietarinen and Eija Timonen, to invite the Ju/’hoansi San community of beaders in Namibia, to collaborate in Ice, a project examining culture, craft and identity as part of a shared creative process. That process saw Pietarinen, Timonen and eight Ju/’hoansi San beaders apply their chosen tools: woven textiles, photos and bead embroidery. The aims of this project were to develop a method for multicultural artistic co-operation and to focus on the ways in which artists from different cultural contexts can work with a common theme.
This art piece (right), Flying Ants (2016), was made by Lena Tsueb. The embroidered language depicts cultural and community life in the Ju/’hoansi San community in northern Namibia. In Tsueb´s embroidered work, the ants emerge from their nest after it rains and relates how people collect and eat ants after it has rained. Both beautifully embroidered surface and fascinating story about flying ants inspired two Finnish artists, Heidi Pietarinen and Eija Timonen, to invite the Ju/’hoansi San community of beaders in Namibia, to collaborate in ‘Ice’, a project examining culture, craft and identity as part of a multicultural and shared creative process. Photography: Heidi Pietarinen 2021.