Media whores!
Since craft is totally the new black and recession chic is all the rage, everywhere you turn these days there seems to be a story about craft and how it’s practitioners are saving the world.
And we’ve been in some of them, yay!
Here’s an article that was in the Sunday magazine in last weekend’s Herald Sun, I think it was in the Daily Telegraph(?) equivalent in Sydney.
Click on the images to see them big.
Radical craft wins! And Brendan who wrote the story is a top crafty bloke too. He makes jam! mmm jam… And is was great having a big chat with him!
Casey and I were also on the sunday artsy program on 774ABC Radio in Melbourne just before I buggered off on my overseas jaunt. It’s quite the funny interview. I recommend a nice cup of tea and a 10 minute sit down while you have a listen (click to play or ctrl+click/right click to save).
Bring on the global craft takeover.
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.
World Sweet World
I am so super lucky. I have in my hot little hands a copy of the second issue of World Sweet World. WSW is a new craft magazine that’s fresh out of Aotearoa and it’s gorgeous.
This issue features an article about Craftivism from my lovely buddy Zoe Thompson Moore, whom you may remember from the TiNA workshop, fence stitching and the Addington Women’s Revolutionary Craft Circle. It’s a great analysis of craft as a radical activity. And I must give a big ups to WSW for seeing this as an important topic to cover in a craft magazine.
The rest of the issue has all sorts of great articles, crafty tips and tutorials and a showcase of local and international craft talent. In fact, I sat down, read it. Read it again. And then immediately started making something out of it!
I can only see this magazine getting better as more people hear about it. And it’s great to see a ‘not your nanna’s’ craft mag coming out of this part of the world.
Even better it’s pretty damn affordable. Despite being printed on sustainable forest paper with vegetable-based inks (which is never overtly cheap), and being over 60 pages, it’s only NZ$8 which is insanely good value considering how ace it is. And it’s even cheaper if you subscribe. Right now they have a special subscription competition, so check it out. I’m certainly getting myself a subscription!
Hug A Tagger
On the 28th of January 2008 Bruce William Emery was remanded in custody after appearing in a south Auckland court charged with the murder of a teenage boy. The 50 year old business men allegedly stabbed 15-year-old Pihema Clifford because he caught him about to tag his fence.
You’d expect an outpouring of indignant outrage that someone could take the life of a young man over something so minor as small scale property damage. Maybe a public reaction similar to the virtual lynching of Junior Bailey Kurariki? No instead this man received generous helpings of media and public sympathy.
Sympathy for taking a life?
A few months down the track, The Wellingotn Police have jumped on the ‘tagging is the root of all evil’ bandwagon. They have decided to add a layer to the standard clean up duty punishment handed out to taggers. Now when a young kid gets caught scrawling his name on something he will be doing clean up in a bright pink jacket with TAGGER written on it.
Yes, the comparisons have already been made to Nazi Germany and the pink triangles homosexual people were forced to wear. And when the Police representative says “It was no reflection on anyone’s sexuality, it’s a loud colour,” I say ‘bullshit.”
Of course they chose pink because it brings along the homophobic peer pressure shame associations that all boys growing up know extremely well. If the Police claim that they didn’t think that was the first issue that would be raised, then they really are thicker than we already thought.
One of the biggest issues that young men deal with in New Zealand is bullying and the pressure to conform to a very white, sporty, straight, blokey, drinking culture. Sadly, too many of our young men don’t find ways of dealing with this pressure and this is one of the major contributors to our shameful teenage suicide rate.
The whole issue of tagging is symptomatic of a wider issue faced by all young people in New Zealand and that is a complete refusal by older generations to attempt to see the world from their perspective.
Wanna know why kids tag? ‘Cause they’re bored.
Wanna stop them from doing it? Give them something better to do.
It’s not fucking rocket science.
Everywhere on the planet where councils, communities, governments or whatever support street-based graffiti art programs see reductions in ‘illegal’ graffiti. EVERYWHERE. And they don’t cost very much. Certainly not as much as the price of housing a convicted murderer for a year…
And the benefits can be enormous. If you get some experienced graffiti artists with a bunch of kids, a pile of spraycans and a sanctioned space, the kids not only learn some decent skills and some basic behaviour codes. But they get to experience making a positive contribution to their community, learn new skills and all the other positive flow on effects of working in a group on a collective task.
Of course, we know it can also lead on to bigger and brighter things. People are now selling property at premium prices because it has Banksy art on it. Obviously the extreme example, but there’s a huge amount of people making a decent income from street art both commercially and as gallery artists.
I have so had enough of this issue. I think it’s time we start speaking out against this ‘community opinion’ that thinks tagging is such a hideous crime it is comparable with rape. Tagging is only a minor misdemenor and the biggest crime, in my opinion, is a lack of artistic skill.
I have spraypaint on the wall out the front of my house and sure it bothers me. But not as much as the fact that only 15% of women feel confident enough in the Police force to report a rape.
As a way of speaking out on this issue, I decided to cross stitch it.
And if you want to make one like this here’s the pattern for the text. Be as creative as you can.
Love and rage
xox
Make Tea Not War
Check out this cool action from the Revolutionary Craft Womyn of Addington in solidarity of the ANZAC Ploughshares who gained access and casued serious damage to the Waihopai Spy Base in New Zealand. Waihopai is a key component of the global US spy system known as Echelon.
Here’s the report from Aotearoa Indymedia:
We all had a wonderful time, drinking cups of tea, holding banners, and giving biscuits and short lectures on NZ-US warlinks to friendly tourists. Green MP Nandor Tanczos joined us for a cuppa briefly, who was randomly cycling past.
We got far more mainstream media attention than expected, guess the quirkiness of our action and topical nature of issue got them interested. This reflects how effective the ploughshares action was in bringing this issue up for public debate. Hopefully our attempt to bring US military base at Harewood into mix had some effect too.We signed three cards for Sam, Adrian and Peter to express our heartfelt appreciation for their inspirational non-violent direct action,
Much love,
from one of the revolutionary craft womyn of Addington
And they managed to get some mainstream press coverage
An obsessive cross-stitcher, an expert crocheter and a quilting guru talked politics over cups of tea yesterday morning.
I reckon ten bonus points for getting nana-core into the article!
And of course my absolute maddest respect to Sam, Adi and Peter for their awesome courage in this action. Not only have they brought attention to the blatant hypocrisy of the New Zealand Government for not being a part of the invasion of Iraq, yet actively being a part of the intelligence gathering to fight this senseless war. They also succeeded in directly acting to stop the functionality of the facility. It was only a day and only a million dollars in damage which is a drop in the military industrial complex ocean. But the symbolism of their action was priceless.
Kia kaha crew, rage and solidarity.
xox
Melbourne Street Press
For all of you zinesters, independent writers and other groovy scribblers, check out Melbourne Street Press! Aside from a fabulous lineup of workshops at the City Gallery, there’s tons of other benefits of getting involved.
An opportunity for all of those interested in any aspect of Melbourne’s buzzing Street Press from zines to comics, from magazines to blogs, any genre and any level, all are welcome.
Whether you’re a budding writer, designer, editor, artist, programmer or photographer, there will be a space for you to meet the like-minded, exchange ideas and learn new skills.
The series of eight workshops will commence on May 14th at City Library, 253 Flinders Lane in Melbourne’s CBD.
They will run from 6pm until 7.45pm and will be FREE.
Visit www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/libraries or call (03)96589500 for more details and to confirm a space.
All members of the Street Press will enjoy the following benefits :
o Regular guest speakers on a variety of subjects
o 100 pages of free printing and photocopying for the Street Press group every month
o The opportunity to host regular zine fairs at City Library
o Opportunity to display suitable digital zines as part of the City Library projections program
o Provision of scissors, glue, staplers and other basic resources for zine creation
o Access to a wide range of graphics and web design programs in our computer labs (with training if needed)
o A copy of each zine created as part of the program will be added to the library’s collection and will be able to be borrowed by library members.The program of speakers is as follows (and subject to change) :
14th May
Introductions and TBC21st May
Luke from Melbourne’s infamous home of zines, Sticky Institute.28th May
Emily from Aduki press, a small Melbourne publisher with an interest in community, environment, food, migration, politics, social justice and travel.4th June
Bernard from Cardigan Comics.11th June
Timba from slick quarterly, Wooden Toy.18th June
A discussion of multimedia street press with Tape Projects.25th June
Currently editor of MCV, but a man with a little bit of everything under his belt, Richard Watts.2nd July
Wrap up and TBCCome and talk to us and find out more about the project at the Emerging Writer’s Festival Zine Fair at Fed Square on May 11th.
Join the Facebook group!
I’m definitely getting involved. It might mean I finally get Hoop-La #2 created!
Ageing Disgracefully
Check out this amazing short vid featuring the infamous Screaming Lulu
An offbeat look at the pressures and expectations for women growing old in our society. Rather than accepting that our faces show character from the lives we have lived and should therefore be celebrated, there is developing need to stretch and paralyze our faces in an attempt to constantly appear 10 years younger.
This film documents my mother’s reaction to these perceptions and expectations. I filmed her talking about how women that don’t appear to follow these rules become invisible in the media (except for specialist marketing such as stairlifts or life insurance). She believes there are few role models or older women to identify with for normal women in their 50′s and above.
Hell hath no fury like a Jewish Mother with a sewing machine!
I think this is brilliantly cool to see craft used as a response to the ridiculous media perceptions of ageing. I agree with her comments entirely! But I won’t spoil it, watch it for yourself.
And I also reckon it’s wonderful that her child has made this film. Absolutely brilliant tribute.
Props Helen
Riots Not Diets
Here’s a very cute use of cross stitch in art. Flickr user Sparklyvodka (great name, like her already!) made these as a final project for an art course. These are all based on things the celebrities would never say. Although I wonder if there should be (in private) at the end of that statement..
Cheers to Julie for the ace find!
Speaking of skinny girls with eating disorders. I am certainly adding my voice to the outrage against the Miss Bimbo online game. I am not linking to it because I don’t believe they need any more encouragement.
Basically the game involves playing games on their website to earn Bimbo dollars which are then spent on making your virtual body look hot. Options include diet pills and plastic surgery. The hotter ie skinnier your Bimbo is, the better you get ranked against other users of the site.
This offends me on so many levels. Most of the press has been around parents being outraged. And as a parent I am outraged. I get petrified at the thought of how to explain the world in a rational way to a teenager now. I can’t even imagine how I’m gonna get a teenager through to her 20s without an eating disorder/drug addiction etc in 15 years time.
But I’m more angry as a woman. I saw one of the developers of the site on tv nonchalantly shrugging off concerns of parents as no big deal. I don’t think it had occurred to him that people might find this offensive. He claimed that their site isn’t anything new, it’s all stuff that’s around in society anyway. But he was wrong.
This site is turning the physical mutilation of women for the purposes of men’s voyeuristic pleasure into a virtual competition. It’s turning it into a game, with mass participation. This has a massive desensitisation effect for very young impressionable minds. Participants of this game can experience the social ‘benefits’ of plastic surgery without ever having the deal with the costs, both physical, emotional and financial of the actual surgery.
I’m angry that some young men thought that it would be a nice profit making venture to exploit the competitive drive amongst young women.
And I’m really pissed off that they put craft on the front page.
Craft Cartel Podcast Episode #1!!!
Yes folks, you’ve heard the whispers and the rumours are true, the Craft Cartel is now a Podcast!
This episode we talk about the Cartel and where it all began. We talk to Melanie from Satchel. And share some fun and subversive crafty projects for you to get involved in. Plus a bit of music and a lot of laughs. Download and subscribe now!
We’re having a special launch party tonight at the market so come along and check out some cool crafty goodness. See the market blurb below…
Like what you hear? We’re planning a show every fortnight or month depending on how busy we are. Mortgages don’t pay themselves you know. Help us not have to work for the man and flick us some coin to help with the costs of producing the ‘cast. Think of it as online busking!
Craft Cartel Night Market – IRA Solidarity
‘Cause drinking beer and wearing green is so passe
This week is a VERY SPECIAL night for the craft cartel. We promised global domination and tonight we deliver, with the launch of our very own PODCAST! Come along to score your limited edition 1st episode on CD and find out how to subscribe and get every single episode delivered straight to your little mp3 player. Public Transport will never be boring again for our lucky listeners!
And sadly this will be our last market at Section 8, yip we’re on the move. So stay tuned for further details. And come along tonight to say a big cheers to Section 8 for being lovely to us for all these wonderful nights of subversion.
It is also St Patricks Day so we’re having a special little celebration for all things anti-colonial. The challenge is on for our stall holders to have at least one item designed to bring down an empire.
PLUS we have the wonderfully awesome Rapskallion back to tantalise our ear buds. Did you hear them a couple of markets ago? They were fantastic!
And of course the bbq will be cranking with our spunky chef spreading the love. The words getting around about the tucker so you better to be there early. Which of course gives you more time to peruse the market and share your hard-earned pennies with our amazing local crafters (who really love your support).
Did you know that buying local handmade goods will save the planet from imminent destruction?
See you there
xox
P.S. If you want to wear green and drink beer, we won’t object, in fact, you’ll be joining us!