craft + activism = craftivism.

The quote below was written by Sarah Corbett regarding the work of the always inspiring Craftivist Collective, which she posted on her Facebook page yesterday.

Just heard that one of the Craftivist Collective prints was bought for a banker and the banker emailed the giver to say thanks providing a good discussion starter with his wife. Hopefully, those discussions will turn into action and challenging the bank system from within.

This is the heart of craftivism.

Changing the thoughts of those against you, moving outside of preaching to the choir.

In keeping with a metaphor: When you’re preaching to the choir, no one new gets to heaven. I.e., you may be working, but not working hard enough.

As Craftivists, crafters, artists, one of our roles is to make people think. All kinds of people, especially those that disagree with us. As the CC quote mentions above, our pieces can work as “conversation starters,” meaning it allows both sides to enter a conversation, not a shouting match.

[A quick to this, a day later. My two points in this are: 1. If people (those you're protesting against) expect A, give them B. When confronted with loud noise, people emotionally shutdown. Give them what they (those you are against, the media, the talking heads) what they're not expecting. 2. And do 1 in a way which engages with others. Tie your work to a pole, put it on a t-shirt, put it online. Just start a dialogue. Use your work, your protest, as a "conversation starter."]

Over the past few months, except for a few tweets, I’ve been publicly quiet about the Occupy, 99% protests. But, if you’ve spoken to me about it in person (or saw those tweets), you would very much be aware of that fact that I don’t support them. Which, maybe to a lot of people sounds strange or sancrosanct or totally uncool, but it’s true.

To me, the whole point of craftivism is to take an issue/cause you believe in and use your craft to speak out about it. Coming up to the table with no actual issue at hand or an amalgam was never part of it. An issue: war, famine, injustice, prison rights, homelessness, university cuts, torture, inequity, environmental damage, social rights, human rights, mental health, freedom, etc. I/you/we could go on, as there is no shortage of issues to rally against!

Craftivism is about making something that gets people on the other side to ask questions about an issue, confront their own engrained opinions on a subject, and if they are willing, start a dialogue. The craft is the activism because it stirs up thoughts about an issue in the minds of the audience on their own terms, they see the work, they wonder what it’s about, they ask questions. They bring the questions to the table and open the dialogue, instead of you rushing in first. The craft opens the door to the activism, truly making the process craft + activism = craftivism!*

I also think that in countries where we have the right to speak out and yell, using your craft/creative endeavors/silence (as in silent protests/sit ins) is loads more effective than making a giant fuss. Because 9 times out of 10, the side you’re fighting against? They’re not going to listen. They’re going to dig their heels in. They’re going to join forces with their peers which they already agree with. It’s when we have the freedom to speak out, that we should re-invent ways of changing things.

By making a quilt/pillow/tapestry/cross stitch, etc., you’re given a way to enter the circle that becomes closed once you raise your voice (or sometimes even just open it!). You let them into the conversation by not yelling, you catch them off guard, daring to subvert the paradigm and let the silence guide the fight, not the cacophony.

In a world where we’re constantly tweeting, texting, watching tv, seeing ads, busy, busy, busy, silence can become our biggest weapon. People close off when we yell, but are forced to think when we’re silent or present work that asks questions or act in a performance piece. Silence gives us the time to question what’s going on, we’re disarmed by it because we’re all kept so freaking busy by our gadgets and technology. Silence strengthens us directly because we have the right to speak up.

In contrast, what made the Arab Spring so powerful? That people who didn’t have the freedom to speak out spoke up, tweeted, joined en masse in public, and in many cases risked (or even gave) their lives to do so. They did what wasn’t done, and changed the future of their countries.

So, in order for us to truly, honestly change things, we need to stop yelling, and speak out in other ways. Stitch a banner, weave a tapestry, knit a scarf, crochet a hat, embroider an old sweater with questions you want to ask, things you want to yell, problems that keep you up at night. In order to create change in people’s hearts, you need to first disarm them by catching them off guard.

They are prepared for your words scribbled on cardboard, chants, marches, fights. They have shields to hold up, tear gas to shoot, pepper spray to aim. They are used to so many ways of protest, because we have the freedom to be loud. We have the freedom to be loud, and have used it such great effect that people don’t pay attention. So when they expect noise, be silent. When they expect a hard fight, bring soft craft.

Dare to find another way to speak out so those who expect your visible rage will be disarmed by your passionate silence. Dare to look in the opposite direction in order to find the back door to dialogue.

Dare to use your craft as your activism, whether you are the 99% or the 1%. Dare to envision a world without people digging in their heels, and instead one where we step ahead towards conversation instead of backwards in argument. Dare to do what they don’t expect out of a true wish to effect change, not to just vent your anger.

By lowering our voices and offering news ways of fighting, we can raise our voices without shouting by using things such as craft as our mouthpiece. We just need to bring silence back as a force of power, instead of noise first.

*The slogan craft + activism = craftivism came about around 2003, because when I first started writing about craftivism, a term that was literally made up, no one knew what the heck I was talking about. It was the only way I could get people to a) figure out what I was saying and b) spell it! These days, it’s less of a problem, but I’m glad the slogan stuck around nonetheless! Hurrah!

Whenever I’m in need of inspiration for something, I can always count on the past. And if you do as well, and you’ve never had a look at the Library of Congress online collection, you might want to. All these photos deal with craft and war. I love how of our cultural current definition of masculinity is challenged a bit in the first photo, a soldier knitting* quietly, with pin up photos in the background. The second and third are two different groups of women, both knitting for “their” soldiers.

Plus, how cool are the uniforms in the second photo?

[Note: how much his creation differs from that of German POW Jim Simpson. Not making a political statement, just interesting. Also: I'm not technically sure what the heck the guy above is doing, as it looks more like he's making friendship bracelets than knitting?]

1st and 3rd photographs: Bain Collection, 2nd: Harris & Ewing Collection

I was sent the following by my friend Carrie Reichardt last night, and really think it’s worth spreading the word about. For more pics (at a larger size, too!) and to contact Carrie, see Carrie’s website.

I love how Carrie and Nick’s work embraces the issues directly, but ultimately allows them both to back off from the creation itself as it (literally) stands in public view for passersby to make their own conclusions. It’s in that self-reflective space where someone views a craftivist work and is allowed to digest and think about a work without interruption where the (positive) revolution and change and real work begins.

Controversial double-headed elephant goes to auction this week at Christie’s in Milan

A leading spokesperson for the ever growing craftivist movement and renegade potter Carrie Reichardt, otherwise known as The Baroness, will this week see her controversial mosaic elephant sold by Christie’s in Milan to raise money for the global elephant parade charity.

The elephant was made in collaboration with Nick Reynolds, harmonic player in the cult activist band Alabama 3 and son of Bruce Reynolds, the master mind behind the great train robbery. It is part of a growing trend, started by the Cow Parade in Zurich in 1998 of getting artists to decorate resin animal sculptures that are exhibited in public places before being auctioned for charity.

Reichardt and Reynolds unique double headed elephant was originally called ‘Bunga Bunga’ – in reference to the then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s alleged sex parties. The name was considered far to political for its organizers so Reichardt was forced to changed the name to Little Miss DMT, (the drug she credits with giving her the vision for the pieces highly intricate mosaic pattern .), It is one of 50 elephants that have been on displayed through out Milan for the last few months. Little Miss DMT has been taking pride of place in front of the Triennial Museum of Modern Art.

The devil they say is in the detail, and as with most of Reichardt work, it is in the detail where the controversy lies.

As Reichardt says; “The only reason, I and Nick take part in these large charity events is because they allow you to make public art that is totally uncensored. You find that when you work for free, rarely anyone actually checks what you are doing, so you end up with total creative freedom.”

This creative freedom, along with Reichardt and Reynolds sheer craftsmanship has allowed them to recently exhibit some extremely contentious work in the public realm. Banksy may boost of getting his ‘subversive’ work into the mainstream galleries , but it is doubtful that even he could pull of such an audacious sited piece as their ‘Trojan Horse’ at Cheltenham Races last week.

As Greg Wood of the Guardian pointed out:
“’Trojan Horse’, by Carrie Reichardt, had a skull for a face and, in Reinhardt’s words, “some pretty hard-hitting facts and pictures about the abuse that the horse has had to endure at the hands of man” presented as mosaics on its body. These included a much-used statistic from the extremist animal rights group Animal Aid on fatal injuries to racehorses, a fact which suggested to some observers that the course should have paid more attention to Classical literature. A Trojan horse, after all, is generally best left outside the walls.”

So it was through craft and altruism that they managed to get their fiercely anti racing and anti blood sport piece on display along with 9 other similar works at Cheltenham National Hunt Festival last week. This life size resin horse was re-sculptured by Reynolds, and then mosaic in ceramic tiles printed by Reichardt. This included gruesome imagery, including a fox being torn apart by hounds and horses hanging in abattoirs with figures explaining that up to 10,000 in the UK will end up as horsemeat. If attacking the racing and hunting fraternity wasn’t enough, both the front two panels of the horse depict mounted police baton charging students from the recent protests, explaining the cruelty involved to the horse in such a situation.

It was not surprising then that this ‘Trojan Horse’ failed to get a single bid, when Cheltenham art museum attempted to auction it from the races last week to raise money for the RLNI.

As Reynolds wryly said, “Its not easy trying to sell a piece of art to people who approve of a sport that abuses horses, when the piece itself is a testimony to all the cruelty the horse has endured by the hands of man.”

Both now hope that some wealthy animal rights supporter will purchase the piece and donate it to a public museum so that the piece can remain in the public domain.

Hopefully in Milan, Christies will have more luck selling their elephant. But following Berlusconi resignation, and scenes of students rioting on the streets, this might prove difficult as they will be attempting to sell an elephant that has ‘La Rivoluzione e’ora (the Revolution is Now) mosaic on to all four ears.

Reichardt remains upbeat though…

“Just my bloody luck, Capitalism collapses, just as my art hits the art market…..– anyway, as a Craftivist I am much more interested in using craft as a way of spreading ideas and social justice that worrying about how much a piece can sell for.”

With their life–size ceramic sculpture of Liverpudlian Mary Bamber, which depicts the radical history of the suffragette movement, recently being purchased by the newly open Museum of Liverpool, there is always hope that both their horse and their elephant will end up where it was created to be – in the public realm.

As Reichardt is keen to point out….for her the ‘Revolution is going to be ceramicised.”

…That you may not have read.

Over the past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about online consumption vs. online production, and wondering how my view on both went so askew. As I’ve been puttering around with my own work, I’ve sorely been neglecting passing on what feeds me creatively, so here are a few examples. There will be more like that soon when the 1st newsletter finally goes out in December… forestalled by well, life, and family health things.

It’s ridiculous how often we forget that usually when it’s we start freaking out because we think we need to post/blog/tweet/reply and are having a hard time finding the time/energy/wherewithal, it’s generally because we’re worried much too much about production and not enough about feeding ourselves… Which leads to nothing much but feeling worse and hungry for sustenance.

While I know full well that craft and creativity can feed us, now that I work a full-time job and no longer have the time to devote that I did in academia (sniff!), I neglect to take the time to read and learn and digest and take in because I’m fretting about what needs to go out. [Note to those of you out there in academia who work and research full time on craft-related things: Embrace it. One day, perhaps I've have the chance to join you again!]

And thus, as it always does, the fretting takes 5 times the energy out of you than taking a few hours out to read, question, scribble and think. Maybe things in your world have gotten a little askew lately, too. If so, here’s a few bits and bobs that have helped me start to get back to balance.

1957. Rio de Janeiro. My mother, aged 15, looks out the window. She’s waiting for a chair. A chair that has been measured, designed and handcrafted in Jacaranda just for her by the local maker down the road. When my grandmother died, this chair was shipped from Brazil to Sydney, then down to Tasmania for my young daughter. Although she shouldn’t, she swings on it the just as her grandmother’s did fifty years earlier.

This is furniture with a story. Furniture made to last. Handcrafted, to be used and loved. In my mind this is deep sustainability. After all, an item that is made well can be mended and re-made again.

Fuad-Luke* nailed it in 2005 when he wrote: “What is clear is that modernist, organic, post-modern or any other doctrine with recognisable semiotics, is easily subverted in the service of industry and to the glory of consumerism and economic progress. … Corporate ambition, encouraged by the capitalist political doctrine, continues to ensure that inbuilt obsolescence, the touchstone of industrial design, keeps producers producing, consumers consuming and designers designing.” …. the question then becomes, what am I going to do about it?

Read the rest here. [Article written by Laura McCusker, which you can learn more about via @McCusker_Design or her website. Post written for Craft Australia Link: HT @namitagw.

Whenever yarn is donated to the group – which happens a lot – Evans has a rule they all follow: donated yarn becomes a donated project.

“It’s my opinion that if it’s donated yarn, you need to pay it forward and use that yarn not for yourself but for someone else,” said Evans, who became coordinator last year.

“Some of these people (in the group) are on a fixed income. They would love to make things for other people, but they can’t afford to go out and buy whole a lot of yarn.”

I think one of my favorite quotes of the article is, however, “Knitting is not just for grandmothers,” Evans said, “but we have lots of them, too.”

More here.

Also on the radar: Counter-Craft.org was recently created by for her DIY Cultures class.

*Alastair Fuad-Luke