Because craft + activism = craftivism.
I love getting emails from people doing wonderful craftivist projects around the world! Recently, I got an amazingly kind and exciting email from Hester at Crafting For Peace.
Along with it, the link to this beautiful and brilliantly done video!
Crafting Peace Finale from Butterfly Works on Vimeo.
Right about now you are probably wondering what is The Papered Parlour?
About a year ago, I got a lovely email from Claire Heafford, a fellow Goldsmiths alum, telling me about a new space she was opening up in London. From her email:
The space is called The Papered Parlour and it’s now home to artists, designers, musicians and theatre practitioners. The venue comprises a cafe, an artist’s studio and a gallery space where we will be running craft classes, hosting performances and putting on exhibitions. It’s all based on a cooperative sharing model of artistic practice, and it’s deliberately located away from East London in attempt to dialogue with a non arts audience.
A few days ago, I got an email from Claire saying how The Papered Parlour currently has a 1 in 3 chance of winning £50,000 via The Barclay’s Business ‘Take One Small Step’ Competition! And how do they win this money!? Through votes, of course! Through one little clicky click over here in fact.
Not up for voting?* I have some links for you here:
–“The Brazilian Etsy”
-Knitting in public hits Charlotte, North Carolina (my hometown!)
–Kentucky yoga center moonlights as art studio for the disabled community
-Tsia quite rightly recommended this Reggie Watts video over at Supernaturale
–Photos from Australia, knitting for the war (Thank you, State Library of S Wales!
–The Papered Parlour video for the competition (last attempt to get your vote)
*Really?
The photo above changed my life. No, really. It was the beginning of my discovery of Riot Grrrl and DIY ethics. This picture made me realize that it was okay to be angry and confused and frustrated and loud as a teenage girl. It made me not feel so alone at 16 when I was angry at all the world’s problems and violence to women. Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna (the women in the photo above) had a scream that enveloped many of us in the early 90s.
Seeing these photos below made that 16 year old in me smile and wish nothing but happiness and strength to these women. I may not be wearing the same stomping shit-kicking boots and holding the same angst, but the part of me that knows what it’s like to be set free and not be scared to speak out feels like it’s just like 1991.
Ok, so technically it’s craftivism. FEMEN’s fighting back against the sex-trade industry. The sign above says “Ukraine is not a Brothel” and the bikinis below are not bikinis, they’re H1N1 masks sewn into bikinis as a statement against the H1N1 hysteria in their country. From their website:
WE ARE THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT:
*We unite young women basing on the principles of social awareness and activism, intellectual and cultural development.
*We recognise the European values of freedom, equality and comprehensive development of a person irrespective of the gender.
*We build up a national image of feminity, maternity and beauty based on the Euro-Atlantic Women’s Movements experience.
*We set up brand new standards of the civil movement in Ukraine.
*We have worked out our own unique form of a civil self-expression based on courage, creativity, efficiency and shock.
*We demonstrate that the civil movements can influence the public opinion and lobby the interests of a target group.
*We plan to become the biggest and the most influential feminist movement in Europe.
Want more? Go check out this interview with FEMEN’s leader, Anna Gutsol. And read more about FEMEN here.
This Thursday come join me and Faythe Levine for a discussion on craftivism and a screening of her documentary, Handmade Nation!
Thursday, March 4, 3.30pm
Columbia College
600 S. Michigan Ave, Room 921
Also, if you read Portuguese or just want to see a weird photo of my creepy red bathroom, there’s an interview with me about craftivism in the current issue of Brazil’s Vida Simples magazine over here. Faythe is interviewed about Handmade Nation on the next page over, which you can see here!
Back in September, I wrote about the Dream Rocket, an amazing project headed up by the equally amazing Jennifer Marsh! The idea behind the Dream Rocket is to cover a (real!) rocket with quilted panels made from around the world… facilitating our global wish for peace. The panels themselves, were a bit spendy for me right now, but now you can buy your own mini panel for the Dream Rocket for $25! That’s probably less than you spend on fancy coffee each month, or maybe even week!
How many times do you get to participate in making a 30,467 square foot cozy? How many times to you get to participate in quilting a rocket cover? Now, at long last, you can do both at the same time, therein checking 2 things off your to-do list simultaneously! Such devilishly smart multi-tasking would leave you the freedom to go on to your next task like build your own totem pole or something.
The Dream Rocket will be accepting payment for panels (full-size or mini) until March 15, 2010.
The photo up top is from 5″x7″ postcards they sell over here at the Dream Rocket store. They are lovely. [Hint: I’m sure it’s been a long time since you’ve written your gran, and they are pretty enough to go up on her fridge. Win win!]