Being oppressed means the absence of choices
I’m re-reading bell hooks’ Feminist theory: from margin to center right now, hence this small portrait of her. I’m thinking about removing it from the frame & making it into a patch to put on a t-shirt instead (just have to find a suitable tee).
For those of you that don’t know, bell hooks (or Gloria Jean Watkins, which is her real name) is an American writer, feminist & scholar that deals with the relationship between sexism, racism & class. I like they way she challenges the contemporary idea of feminism as a movement & an expression that could mean just anything, depending on who defines it. According to hooks, feminism must be “the struggle to end sexist oppression” & that means that the dominant liberal feminism of today, that doesn’t deal with class issues, can never be real feminism. She is relentless in her assault on white, middle class feminists (hey, that’s me!) & the movements unwillingness to acknowledge & analyze it’s own racism & class issues. But at the same time as she advocates a raging criticism against how white feminists have excluded & marginalized black women or other ethnic groups & made their own strive for equality with privileged white men the goal, she’s very clear on what has to be done: a turn towards companionship, solidarity & bonding between women (a bond that does not have it’s roots in an imagined shared role as “victim” or “oppressed”, but in shared strength & resources). She’s even written a book that is all about love. I’d really recommend reading bell hooks to anyone who’s interested in the ways that sexist, racist & class oppression works together & has to be challenged together.
Cross posted from cross yr stitches.
Clever People Abound
I’ve been finding all sorts of cool, inspiring and useful stuff online over the last day or so, and decided I’d share them.
Firstly, Sayraphim has written this great wee tutorial on how to publicise your exhibition or event. I would call this a must read for anyone putting on an event and wanting some helpful tips on how to get people there. And kudos to Sayraphim for putting this out there. I’ve been rather critical of parts of the Melbourne arts scene recently and it’s mostly because there just isn’t the community based cooperation that exists in the craft communities. I’m a staunch believer that creative communities should be taking a lead in demonstrating how people can work together. So yes, nice to see someone putting some genuinely useful information out into the public sphere!
On the helpful stuff front, I’ve had a few chats with people recently about getting grants for all sorts of things. And I have to recommend OurCommunity as a GREAT website with all sorts of helpful tips on how to write applications and they have lots of databases of grants to apply for.
Just Seeds has got the call out from the UK Anarchist Federation about a publication they’re doing on the intersections between art and anarchism. I know a fair few of you will be interested in this one, I’m sure they’d like as many submissions as possible!
And if you need a bit of inspiration I urge you to check out INCITE! and online journal of experimental and radical aesthetics. Most of it is film based so a fair bit of it went over my head but I still very much appreciate seeing artists get together with a radical analysis. The manifesto section was particularly inspiring!
Finally, if that doesn’t fire you up, this surely will. The Heretics is a new film coming out real soon about the Women’s Art Movement in the 1970s in the US, mostly New York. It’s based around a collective which produced a women’s art journal called Heresies. And the best bit is that they’ve pdf’ed all the old issues and you can download them for free. I downloaded one issue and the contents included words like: radical, anarchist, anti-colonial, revolution, liberation and strategy. How could you go wrong? I’m really looking forward to the film coming out. I’ll try and update progress on this one. In the meantime, get reading!
Radical Craft on the radio
A couple of weeks before Christmas, Melbourne radio station 3RRR invited the Craft Cartel to come on air to chat about craft ins, conscious shopping and radical craft.
It was gonna be me and Casey but Casey’s bike objected to the early morning workout so it was just me in the end. It was a great interview and we covered a huge amount in such a short space of time. They’re keen to have us back on air so hopefully they will soon.
Listen to the interview here.
Finishing Off
I’ve been quite slack on the blogging front recently )read: stupidly busy doing other stuff) but really wanted to share some stuff I’ve seen recently which deserves to be seen!
From the Facebook group, there’s been all sorts of interesting things pop up recently. I LOVE this one by Aruna, what an awesome present.
And this is from another Johanna. What is it with all these awesome cross stitching Johanna’s!?!
This beautiful, beautiful piece is from Heather. Visit her blog to know more about it. But I’m happy just looking at it. The stitching is incredible and the words are brilliant ones to ponder on.
As for me, I’m busy busy preparing for an installation! I’ll have news on that soon. And Christmas present pics coming even sooner. And I’ve been sending Hooplas everywhere! Y’all obviously like your stitches subversive ’cause I’ve had tons of orders. Yay!
Hope you all had a wonderful safe christmas and are planning a kick ass new years!
xox
Hoopla (Finally) In The House!
A wee bit beyond deadline but Hoopla #3: Radical Inspiration is now available for sale. It’s been a bit of a mission and my plan to get it out in October was a bit overshot. But finishing a project before the end of the year is always satisfying!
Contents include:
creative action inspiration
projects
two patterns (cross stitch and menstrual pads)
plus more writing, pictures and fun!
The first three online orders will get FREE shipping!
Hoopla available in all usual stockists (soon). If you have a zine library or store, infoshop or craft store and are interested in stocking Hoopla, please get in touch.
Thanks to all the wonderful contributors this issue: Cate, Nina, Camille, Katie Lee, Rayna, Zoe, Johanna, Angela, Sarah, The Baronness, Estelle, and Cross Stitch Ninja.
Calling all Melbourne conscious crafters
All aboard!
Seriously folks, if there’s a good cause to craft for then this is surely one of them. Goods 4 Girls is an amazing group that assists young African women in sustainably managing their periods in order to keep them in school. And they do a fantastic job!
10 points to the lovely Ms Cate for coordinating this! The bonus is learning to make your own pads if you haven’t before. So you can be inspired to go home and make some for you too!
I’m gutted that I’ll miss the first one, but definitely on board for session two.
Pass it on!
Wear it with pride
This is quite a timely post given all the elections flying around at the moment. Typically when one thinks of a rosette, the image comes to mind of a slightly greying man in a grey suit, bad glasses and a slightly worn brown suitcase. He’s just knocked at your door and is trying to convince you that he deserves your vote (power, baubles, junkets) to do absolutely nothing different from the other guy.
Well politics has changed a little bit but the rosette is still a time-honoured tradition of all political parties. A rosette is designed to proudly declare your political view. It says ‘hey look I support this party and I’m a good person so it’s ok for you to support them too’.
A rosette is also used a prize. I’m sure you’ve all got memories of a country fair or a horse show or something similar. The shiny blue ribbon rosette which declares a winner is always worn on a puffed out chest, especially if it’s a first time winner.
Which is why I absolutely adore the new rosettes from Zoe (see podcast episode 5). She has taken a selection of colloquial terms for menstruation and turned them into rosettes so you can wear your moon on your chest!
Zoe has been pretty busy recently ’cause she also co-presented a Pecha Kucha night with Jared Davidson from the Garage Collective. They did 20 seconds each on 20 slides about art and activism. I was hugely inspired listening to this and I totally recommend anyone who is into conscious practice to take 10 and have a listen.
Still a Revolution, Still Dancing!
One of the things I love the most about this site is when I get links from other people who have used the patterns on the DiY Page. But this one has excited me more than most!
Some of you may recognise this as the same pattern I used to stitch the Red Emma banner I submitted to the Extreme Craft Exhibition in Lithuania last year. Unfortunately that piece got lost in the post on the way home (thanks postal workers strike – hope one of you found it and it’s on the wall in a union office somewhere!). So it’s really cool to see another one made! And the best bit is that this one is actually finished. I ran out of time to finish my one and didn’t do the shoulders so great to see the whole thing!
Katie Blair is the ace creator of this. It was made for a friend? So hopefully the recipient is super excited to get such an awesome present.
On another Emma topic and a sad note. My wee pussy cat, Emma, had a bit of a run in with the road on Sunday night and is now sleeping peacefully in the bottom of our garden. I wanted to share this picture with you
sniff.
Craft Cartel Podcast Episode #7
This episode of the Craft Cartel podcast is a recording of a recent event we hosted in Melbourne called ‘The Revolution is Handmade’.
The first half of the ‘cast is a talk by Rayna and it’s titled ‘The Fabric of Resistance’. This podcast is kinda like Radio With Pictures ’cause you can follow along with the talk with the slideshow below
The musical interlude is a track called ‘Memories’ by Shorti RV (whom I can’t find anything about online, I’m guessing she’s Sydney-based, if anyone knows anything about her can you leave a comment? xox)
The second part of the show is the talk by Dr Joyce Stalker from the University of Waikato, Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr Stalker talks about fabric crafts and political change. Don’t have the slideshow online sorry, but hopefully will in the future so we’ll update this when happens.
And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.
The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!
We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an add-free world sounds like.
p.s. we’re having some serious issues with the plugin that manages our podcast so if you have any problems downloading this please let me know.
Ace.
sometimes they come back
I haven’t been as active here as I should be during the last couple of months. But now I have two new projects to share with you!
This first one is a simple cross stitch that I made some week ago, just to get myself going after a long period of zero inspiration. It’s a quote from some graffiti in the bathroom of a pretty run down Indian restaurant where me and my friends used to go to drink cheap beer a couple of years ago. I think it’s funny and serious at the same time – as a Swedish writer once said; to be a woman and not be a feminist is like shitting yourself in the face. All women should be feminists by birth, then it’s up to you to decide how hardcore you wanna be about it…
This second one is inspired by a song from Swedish punks Sju Svåra År, and they got the quote from Joan Jett – I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation! I love both songs and I think that this cross stitch turned out really well. I wrote a little statement about it on my own blog:
But more important is the fact that a woman that’s not afraid of expressing herself in any way, especially sexually, is still seen as a “bad woman” in societies eyes – she’s a whore, a slut, a sinner & if something bad happens to her, well maybe she deserved it. It must be very confusing growing up in todays (western) world, where the girls are bombarded with images of the “perfect” female body, with the demand on being sexy, being available, to always dress & act according to the expectations of the male eye, but at the same time balance on that thin line that separates them from “loose women”. Not to recognize their own sexuality & say fuck it, i like sleeping around, i like being myself in any way, because if they do they might be marked for life. It is amazing that the notion that a woman who sleeps around is a whore & a man that does the same is a stud is still such a unchallenged part of society. So, to not give a damn about one’s reputation, whether it be sexually or in any other way, is one of the things that might be most important in the feminist struggle today.
