Nyata Collective consists of Asha Victoria and Amber Zara van den Pangaard, Arnhem and Rotterdam-based multi-disciplinary artists, exploring ways to address social topics through collaborative and hands-on textile processes.
Nyata is an Indonesian word for ‘real’ or ‘tangible’ based on facts. With their practice they aim to broaden this definition into a term for merging the invisible and visible into a tangible experience.
As a collective, they dive into different modes of harvesting knowledge by making space for what has been archived in the body: heritage, memories, dreams, daily experiences. They believe that through human and non-human encounters, we can gather personal stories, turning them into interwoven threads of knowledge and skills to move towards a dynamic and circular system centered on community building and reciprocity.
We hosted Batik Workshops at No Other Option Amsterdam and De Voorkamer Utrecht, where we redefine modes of archiving by writing, drawing, and creating stamps. We were amazed to see the creativity blooming from every participant, impactful conversations and the collaboration that can be seen (and felt) from the batik tapestry.
A cyanotype and weaving workshop for the students at Graphic Design ArtEZ Arnhem. We questioned the digital binary system on Instagram and broke the boundaries of information censorship by revealing silences, gaps, trauma, and pain, serving as a space of refusal and resistance. What is inside the margins and who is placed outside?
How can we preserve our memories and reveal gaps within an archive on a tapestry? By embroidering messages and symbols on batik tapestries made with previous workshop participants, we enrich the textile with more encounters and sharing of knowledge. Experimenting with mending and stitching techniques like Sashiko, the result is one large collective tapestry forming as a living archive.
View your body as an archival site: which intergenerational stories are nested there? We looked into textiles as an archive, a silent witness of daily life. What intergenerational knowledge is embedded in our bodies, held by what we wear? How can we bring invisible voices to life? During the workshop we translated stories into shapes and transferred them onto fabric, created Batik prints that slowly appeared by dying. While waiting for the results we made embroideries and slow stitches; transmissions of knowledge in textiles. What do you want to archive for the future? What has been passed down from generations? We built a mutual exchange of knowledge between participants and grew a collection of stories.
Photography Rosanne van Wijk — Spring workshop Batik facilitated by Nyata Collective, Asha Victoria and Amber Zara van den Pangaard. Part of Time Out / Tune In programme by Lenn Cox, Plaatsmaken. April 2026.
On Friday the 12th of June we hosted an Anarchival Pocket Making Workshop at Stadskeuken Arnhem. It was a lovely afternoon where we shared stories of textile experiences we had in the past and how they influence us today. How are textile skills rooted in our families and daily lives? How can we catch these memories and stories in a pocket to embody and preserve them?
A workshop in collaboration with Pulp Collective which reflected on the materialisation of censorship through textiles. By embroidering together, we reflected on pieces of censored textile art, how textile can serve as a messenger for censored voices, and how textile is central in transmitting cultural knowledge.
Our work was part of the exhibition Not My Knowledge, curated by this year’s Close-Up team in collaboration with Allard Pierson Special Collections. The exhibition questions: what is considered legitimate knowledge, and why? Our tent tapestry features the results of the batik and embroidery workshops we have been hosting the last couple of months — we would like to thank all the participants for their amazing work. Further, we invited the audience to embroider their thoughts, experiences, stories or knowledge on the tent and a bigger archive.
