There was this moment in my life where everything became a whole lot clearer; the moment it was explained to me that gender identity is not an either-or, rather it’s a two axis grid. And your position on that grid is not necessarily fixed but can, and often does, shift.

Because, like all forms of identity, gender identity is in the eye of the beholder. We are all unique individuals and whilst we might have many things in common, how we identify ourselves and how we see ourselves within our identities is an entirely personal position. Of course, how society sees these things is an entirely different proposition..

Once I began to see my own gender identity as a fluid spectrum I literally stopped worrying about it.  It was as if I had been wearing glasses of the wrong prescription and rather than continue to try and squint to see, I just took them off.

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As part of the Tapysteria Hacks series, I chose to embroider this quote by one of my most significant role models in terms of understanding gender identity, Patti Smith. One day, doilies shall experience that same clarity.

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Old School (2012)
It’s Never Too Late to Mend Exhibition – Incinerator Gallery

Bringing the technique of fence stitching into a gallery context, ‘Old School’ is a homage to the embroidery designers of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. ‘Old School’ is a reference to the little understood history of political craft. ‘Old School’ pays tribute to remix culture and those who seek to keep knowledge free.

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The mother as an artist. Disbanding the myth of the artistic sanctuary and a space to create.

Two and a half hours of embroidery, feeding, changing, entertaining, and cuddling.

Photography: Marcus Salvagno
Editing: Karl Fitzgerald
Music: Line of Flight – Revolution Void

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This piece was created for “It’s Never Too Late to Mend”.

The Making and Baking.. was born out of a desire to contribute to the conversation about the value of handmade.  All too often purveyors of handmade goods find themselves having to justify their prices in the face of mass production of consumerables.  Comparing a uniquely designed, handmade piece of clothing against a one of thousands, sweat shop produced item shouldn’t even happen, yet it does. And far too often makers are left to defend their ‘high’ prices, when the reality is that the mass producers should be the ones explaining their prices. This Is Handmade is a brilliant video project which works with this idea.

The Making and Baking.. was also inspired by observations of gender within the arts. As a mother and an artist I rarely have the luxury of uninterrupted creative time, I share my creative space with small children and I have to manage gallery time with childcare.  These are not really issues that phase me as my children are my muses and are very much a part of my practice. What interests me is the different status that artists attract due to their family status. Certainly my experience and observation of group shows is that it’s the single guys who get the most time and attention paid to their art.

Luckily for me, my practice tends to attract similarly radical curators and art workers so my colleagues have always been open to supporting my children being present and part of my art. However, I know this is not reflective of the art world as a whole.  Hopefully this piece will plant some seeds for people to think about the way they value art workers as parents.

Thanks again to Marcus, Karl, Hannah, Jose and the kids for helping put this piece together, arohanui xx

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Greetings Premier Ballieu

I read with great sadness at the decision by your government to scrap the State carbon reduction target. Victoria is one of the greatest polluting regions per capita on the planet. And we need to be moving forward not backwards on solutions for climate change.

I am part of a number of active organisations in Melbourne’s West, working hard to create sustainable, localised food, energy and clothing options for our community. Not only is our work making a major difference to the lives of people involved in our activities, but has a ripple effect across our whole community as more people grow their own food, get out of their cars and onto buses and bikes and invest their money on locally made items.

It is so inspiring to be part of a movement of people working to make the world a better place.

So it is even more disappointing to read about the head in the sand attitude your government is taking towards sustainable policy, especially in relation to energy production.

I urge you to:

• Reinstate the carbon reduction target
• Support clean energy
• Bring an end to coal fired power

Your government has a responsibility to take action on climate change. I want you to take action to cut pollution and support a safe climate future for my family.

Warmest regards

Rayna

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Ahoy me hearties! Land pirates straight ahead!

Oh to be a speculator.

It must be such a great life buying up blocks of land, sitting on them for a few years watching the community grow and the infrastructure develop, then when the time is right, flip them off for some easy capital gains. Even better when the land isn’t in your suburb so you can externalize the problems that vacant land creates like weeds, rubbish, vandalism and housing affordability pressures. Even better when the council has a rates system that charges on land and buildings so the blocks around yours with houses and businesses on them have to pay more than you do.

Well, just ’cause the council thinks it’s ok for all these pirates to be sailing around our hood, looting the bounty created by our communities, doesn’t mean the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle does.

We’re sick of looking at these blocks. We want a re-imagining of how we use land in Maribyrnong. We want to address housing, sprawl, waste, food security, transport, health, community gardening and play.  In our separate lives we work on these projects but are daily undermined by the pirates.  We want the people of Maribyrnong to join with us in starting the conversation about the blight on our suburbs that is vacant land and what the Council plans on doing about it.

Currently, they don’t see it as a problem.

So, we ask the question “What else could go here?”  We are surrounded in blank canvases and we call on all citizens to spend some time thinking about what better ways we can use this land. Let’s keep animals, let’s grow food, let’s grow trees, let’s build parks!

Have you an idea? Put it on your closest fence tonight! Or get some chalk and write your ideas on the footpath! Use your imagination people, our communities are in our hands.

Love + rage

MRCC

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You are all very very very welcome to my first ever solo exhibition “It’s Never Too Late To Mend”.

The show runs from Friday the 13th of April until Sunday the 13th of May. It is showing at Incinerator Gallery in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne.  For those who don’t know Incinerator, it is one of Melbourne’s most beautiful buildings. It was originally designed by Walter Burley Griffin (aka the guy that designed Canberra) as an actual incinerator, one of a number he designed at the time.  At the time, locals were concerned about the amount of waste going to landfill and decided they wanted an incinerator to turn the waste into clinker ash which could be used on the large number of roads which were being sealed at the time. There’s a great article about the history of the building (including a cute photo of my curator, Richard), here.

While the building wasn’t used for its original purpose for very long, it now exists as one of the greatest community assets in the West.  And even decades on, the fantastic design of the building proves that function shouldn’t preclude beauty.

It is truly (a sometimes daunting!) honour to be showing in this wonderful space.

It’s Never Too Late To Mend is part retrospective and part new work and it covers a wide range of mediums from traditional canvas needlework through to large installations, photography and animations.

The timing of this opportunity was perfect. I had just come out of a six month break from ‘work’ craft and over that time I had spent a lot of time reading craft and design history and teaching myself new techinques. Most significantly I re-read The Subversive Stitch (AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ!!!!!) and spent a lot of time considering which direction I wanted to take my craft in. I see most of my work as having two roles: 1. Encouraging creative types to be more political (and more brave) and 2. Encouraging activists to be more creative (and less serious..).  But the more I meditated on these ideas, the more I realised that there was a third role that I hoped my work would play which was to encourage better design. Not that I really see myself as a particularly good designer, but I do believe that in this time of global ecological crisis we are facing, if we are going to make stuff, we should make a real effort to ensure it’s bloody good stuff that’s going to be around for a while.

In this exhibition, I have examined the history of needlework design and come to the conclusion that, bar a few exceptional examples, needlework design has been pretty rubbish since the end of the art nouveau and art deco periods. In fact, if you want fine examples of cross stitch design, you’re better off going back further than that.

So I have sought to go back to those times and pick up some of those design techniques and bring them to a new time and place.

It’s Never Too Late To Mend asks creative communities to consider our roles as makers and vision shapers, to consider the urgency of our consumerist climatic crisis: to reflect on our practice and demand the best of ourselves for the sake of our collective imagination.

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Y’know economics can be really boring. All that lingo, boring white dudes and acronyms. Anyone would think they made it boring on purpose so we wouldn’t pay attention to how much economics is the single greatest driver of our planets destruction. And anyone who thinks this has nothing to do with craft oughta read this.

What we really need is economics with wicked beats, and plain speak. Then maybe we would pay attention and sort this madness out before our lovely planet is unfit for habitation.

Oh wait, here you go.

Watch. Share. Agitate.

(check out the fence stitching)

http://realestate4ransom.com/

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I’m excited to be a part of this exhibition opening tomorrow night!

My Bikes Not Bombs doiley will be there amongst the most amazing collection of doiley inspired art you have ever seen. I’ve had a sneak peek and there’s some truly wonderful creations.

Hope to see you there!

Gleaners Inc
2 Ballarat Street
Brunswick

Friday March 16th
5.30-7.30pm

Exhibition dates: 16th March to 13th April

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Have you heard about this amazing new project? “In a war someone has to die” is an amazing new collaborative embroidery project by Hanne Bang.

From Hanne:

A couple of years ago I happened to zap by a TV program, in which a journalist was interviewing a professional African soldier. To the soldier`s great disappointment he was out of work at the moment – because there was no war in his region.
The interviewer asked the soldier if he was afraid of dying, and the soldier said: “No I am not afraid of dying. Are you afraid of dying?” The interviewer answered: “Yes I am afraid of dying”. Then the soldier said, without any sentimentality: “In a war someone has to die”.
This little dialogue, and the words “In a war someone has to die”, returned to me over and over again. Of course I knew that in wars people die, but suddenly I saw the essence of war and the reality of it very clearly.
These words are the main element in the art project. I use this sentence – these harsh words – in a feminine expression, as handkerchiefs and embroidery are.

You can participate in this project by visiting the website or the facebook page. I can’t wait to see the finished result!

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Every now and then you stumble across something and think ‘gee, I’d totally tattoo that on myself’.  Well, this year I had one of those moments and went with it.

I’ve always thought I’d wait until I was at least 30 before I got a tattoo. I had that gut instinct that if I did something like that before then I’d most probably end up regretting it. I was a fickle young thing.

So for the last couple of years I have seriously contemplated a couple of ideas. I did get very close to a cross stitch design. Figured I needed to stitch it up before embarking on actual ink. And after I had done that, decided it would be a bit big for what I wanted.

I’m a collector of old craft. Either finished pieces or the things people use to make with. I have lots of old needle cases and needle books. Tons of old needles, wool winders, thimbles, you get my drift. A couple of months ago I bought this simply gorgeous antique souvenir sewing kit. It didn’t take long for me to realise that THIS was what was going on me forever.

Click here to see the other images of the box. It is such a delightful object, I am going to treasure it for a very long time!

I’m the kind of person that believes in the importance of signs. It’s crucial to remind yourself of the messages you hold true. Some people hang stuff on the wall, pin things to their office cubicles, embroider samplers, paint on footpaths. I have a small affirmation stuck on the inside of my wardrobe door, I have pictures on my walls, and a vast collection of button badges I can pop out for the right moment.

It’s Never Too Late To Mend, is very much a motto for me. I apply it to craft, politics, our lovely planet, my relationships and communities. And now I proudly wear my motto on my arm to help me keep on track for the rest of my life.

A massive thanks to Matt Gordon who was working out of Down to Earth Tattoos for his beautiful work. He was so much fun to hang out with!

And another massive thanks to Mark Burban for the great pic. I did some really great work with Mark and will be revealing more on that project soon!

Now, get mending!

xxx

rayna

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