up patched brand new

STAGE | The Masks Of Aphra Behn

This one-woman show brings a brilliant raconteur back to life as she recounts her tale of spying for King Charles II and how she became a writer.

Feb 17-18, 7.30pm, £15, space.org.uk

Where? Poplar Union Poplar

Local

Feb 17, 7pm, free,

Where? The Waterman’s Arms Isle Of Dogs

At the heart of TLZ Movement is the joy of taking something that already exists and changing it to make something new. Nadia Piechestein studied fashion in Buenos Aires before going on to ound one o the first ethical fashion brands in Argentina.

Her clothes were made with sustainable khadi cotton, made by a cooperative, with the clothes produced by another cooperative in the city that offered classes to former prisoners to help with their rehabilitation. As a dancer herself, her styles focused on costumes for performance as well as pieces to exercise in.

Relocating to London a few years ago, with her husband Herman, she arrived with her collection in the UK, bought a sewing machine and initially started making clothes here.

“But then I decided not to make any more clothes at all, because I think we already have enough on this planet,” said Nadia.

“My idea was to make existing clothes better so people can keep them rather than throwing them away.

“So I stopped making clothes and I started repairing, customising and altering them.

“That’s what I do for customers, but I also teach people how to do it themselves.”

TLZ Movement is now located at The Forge on the Isle Of Dogs’ Westferry Road and is a member of Craft Central, the charity that runs the facility.

Nadia essentially offers three core services. She reworks existing garments, using up-cycling and dead stock materials from other producers that would otherwise go to waste. She uses these to refresh and customise clothes for their owners to give them a new lease of life.

Nadia also offers a more standard alterations and repairs ser ice to ensure clothes fit correctly to start with or to rescue damaged garments. For this she is happy to create visible or invisible repairs depending on her customers’ desires.

Then there are her workshops at

The Forge, where participants can learn mending techniques, how to use a sewing machine, copy their favourite clothes, weave and rework.

“I’m not against the theme of having a bright new garment –that’s my inspiration,” said Nadia. “If you’re bored with a piece in your wardrobe, you can bring it to me and I will put something new into it. That way you get the feeling of having a new piece of clothing again.

“The best way is to think of it as caring for your clothes, as keeping them and continuing to love them. It’s also something nobody else will have. For Christmas this year, I asked friends for garments they no longer wore – I didn’t tell them what I was doing. Then I

Left, Nadia models some of her creations in The Forge on the Isle Of Dogs where TLZ Movement is based reworked them, gave them back and my friends were amazed. When they wore them, they had that story to tell.

“When I make visible repairs or additions, the more people can see the time and effort that has een put into something. It connects the owner with the maker and shows how much you care about a garment.

“Here at Craft Central and in London, I collaborate with other makers and textile businesses a lot, using pieces and scraps of fabric that would otherwise go to waste.”

In a world of ceaseless pressure and communication, the convenience and discount pricing of fast fashion is an ever-present temptation. Never in the UK have so many garments been available to consumers so cheaply.

But at what cost to those engaged elsewhere in the world making them – or for the planet in terms of the resources necessary to produce them and the inevitable waste mountain they create?

To help address some of these issues, Nadia has created iron-on patches that can be used both to repair and customise clothes.

Made with khadi cotton sourced from India, they can be applied with a normal household iron, so no need to get out the thimble. Available in a variety of designs with prices starting at £18 for six, they are aimed at time-poor indi iduals looking or a rapid fi or update to their apparel.

“Patches can go in the washing machine at less than 40ºC and should last a long time,” said Nadia. “I would encourage people to think that wearing them is a statement about Planet Earth.

“It shows that you care about the environment and it spices you up as a person. People can buy them online and use them to create any shape they want – they just need to cut them.

“It’s something that can be really creative and they are great for kids too who are always putting holes in things.

“With TLZ I’m really happy with what I’m building here now. I’ve been part of London Fashion Week and London Craft Week – I really want to boost what I’m doing now and expand in east London and into the City.

“It would be great to see the patches stocked in small shops so that people can embrace repairing and customising their clothes.

“The majority of my customers are from the Isle Of Dogs and I have so much gratitude for that – there are no words. I love them.

“I also want to reach a new audience through teaching so people can understand all the good things they can do.

“That’s why I’ve started creating team building events for businesses and organisations.

“People can come with their colleagues, have some drinks and learn the basics of sewing before being challenged to repair a garment that they can then take away.”

Nadia also works with arts companies to give performance costumes new lives after their stints on stage.

TLZ Movement’s next event is set to take place on February 18. People are invited to bring damaged garments to The Forge for a free mending session using her signature patches between 11am and 4pm.

Go to tlzmovement.com for more details

Scan this code to nd out more about TLZ Movement what’s on things to do, places to go, people to see

Where? Brunel Museum Rotherhithe

by Jon Massey

KIDS | Tunnellers Club

Suitable for ages 7-11, this monthly club o ers a free hour of activities themed around the life of Marc Brunel. Expect to make a kaleidoscope in this one. Feb 12, 10am, free (ticketed), thebrunelmuseum.com

Where?

Canada Water Theatre Canada Water

FILM | Under Your Nose

This documentary follows a group of activists as they establish the Black Lesbian And Gay Centre, which supported people in the 1980s and 1990s. Feb 17, 7.30pm, donations, canadawatertheatre.org.uk

Where? The Albany Deptford

The Albany is looking for creative ideas deserving of a £1,000 grant. Shortlisted entrants will pitch live to audiences and a panel on March 14. Get thinking. Application deadline Feb 21, free, thealbany.org.uk coming up

Ziah’s Games Night is set to take over The Albany on February 10 from 7.30pm and will see performances from a line-up of talented Lewisham creatives. Participants will complete a number of games for the audience’s pleasure thealbany.org.uk

Scan this code to nd out more about Ziah’s Games Night or to book tickets for the February 10 event involved is very interested in process. I ha en’t seen all the finished work yet, including my own, but we have set really ambitious targets. Some of it will work and some of it won’t. Some will change in curation from how it appears in the studio when it’s placed in the gallery.

If you think this article is going to explain exactly what will fill the rt In erpetuity Trust Gallery from February 16 to March 5, you’re in for a disappointment. But sit with Space Lab co-curator and artist Nicola Rae for a chat about the exhibition and you can’t help but feel a little awed by its ambition.

Her studio space at the creative enclave on the banks of Deptford Creek is currently festooned with tripods as part of her collaboration with the Gravity Laboratory at the University Of Nottingham.

These await arious pieces o equipment that will focus on a series o uid ortices, part o an investigation into gravity, water and acoustic waves.

Magnets will spin, stirring liquids in tubular glass vases, while a camera is used to capture something called schlieren distortions. Quite how it will all come together is still a work in progress.

This is ust one of seven co-creative experiments conceived for Space Lab by Nicola and co-curator Ulrike Kuchner, an artist, astrophysicist and creative producer.

“We want all those elements to e ree owing, allowing things to happen.”

While the experiments are too complex to list comprehensively here, one to watch out for is io designer nshuman upta’s BioBorgs – iocomputers that imagine a reality where organisms can act autonomously, based on environmental threats.

These respond to the research of collaborator and exoplanetary astronomer, maury Triaud, into the Trappist system. Its planets are most optimal for evidence of life beyond our solar system.

Nicola Rae

“We have spent more than a year on this show,” said Nicola. “We put in an application for grant unding to the cience nd Technology acilities ouncil and were amazed that we got everything we asked for.

“In a way we shouldn’t ha e been surprised, because Space Lab is an incredibly exciting pro ect. lrike, as a post doc researcher at Nottingham, has a lot of connections and she feels strongly that often collaborations are not as in-depth as they could be, focusing instead on public engagement or the dissemination of research by scientists.

“ o we set off with the idea o going deeper. We also wanted the artists and scientists to have a really big space for the work they create.

“We call Space Lab an expanded field o e periments – it is the idea of going beyond limits, outside the remit o scientific experimentation. Everyone studios since 1995 and has taught at the Univeristy Of

“We wanted to set this ambition that the artists would contribute meaningfully to the science,” said Nicola, who has been ased at T’s studios since 1995 and has taught at the Univeristy Of The rts ondon since 2006. “My work will be a series of experiments working with li uid ortices and I’m making the scientific e uipment myself.

“I’ll e working with uinine and coconut oil in the water to create different densities. There will also be magnifying glasses and different e uipment on tripods and there will probably be a performative element as well.

“ t the heart o it, we’re trying to communicate a fascination with phenomena and the scientific process – something that’s so often seen in labs but less so outside them.” side rom the se en colla ora tive experiments, there’s another strand to Space Lab. s part o the process o putting the exhibition together, the curators have been working with Tech ard creati e technologist Jazmin Morris to create a series of workshops for young people.

Titled Space Labs: Stars In Your Eyes, these have seen astrophysicists going into Lewisham schools to explore the themes of the exhibition and have a go at creating their own pieces.

“The big surprise for us was how enthusiastic the children were, particularly when talking about science questions, and there’d be a big sea of hands going up, asking really good questions,” said Nicola.

“We thought there might be a lack of interest, but not at all.

We will be featuring some of the students’ work on screen at the exhibition and we’ll be inviting their families and friends to see that on the last weekend of the show.

“I hope anyone who comes down to see Space Lab feels really intrigued and excited. Astrophysics is seen as quite elitist but this is all about reaching out to people who might feel they could go into this field.

“With new telescopes generating a huge amount of data, this is really an expanding area.

“It’s not just about the children, but also changing the minds of parents. This is something that’s come up in research again and again – kids listen to their parents and it’s really sad that children who are good at maths are told they shouldn’t go into these areas.