Oh Sorry, was that your land?
At long last I can present a work I finished a while ago which has been sitting in the framing pile for far too long.
For a long time I have been astounded at the amount of finished handmade work that lies unwanted and unappreciated in our op shops. Mostly they are insanely undervalued. I recently visited a store that had a tapestry frame for sale (at higher price than brand new ones!) sitting alongside a finished tapestry. Take a guess at which had the higher price. Given that the people that normally work in op shops – especially of the charity variety – tend to be older women, you’d think there’d be a bit more appreciation for the time and effort gone into some of these pieces. But sadly not.
As part of my personal goal of using less new stuff, rather, using the stuff we have more efficiently. And as part of my goal to help raise the value of craft, in particular the not practically useful ones.. I have begun a series of stitch ‘hacks’.
Taking the political ideas behind hacktivism and the open source movement in particular to inform this series, the Tapysteria Hacks will take a previously discarded piece and give it a new, albeit political, life.
The piece above was titled ‘Snowgum’ and it’s a scene from Goulburn. I’d just been through that area when I found this one so I was particularly interested in it. Initially I had some more detailed ideas for it, but decided that I didn’t want to take away too much from the original work. I found this rolled up and stuffed under a pile of fabric in an op shop. I think it was about $3 or $4. The original work wasn’t done on a frame so it was quite stretched and distorted and took quite a lot of work to frame up – massive respect to Finer Art Services, the art framers in Seddon for the awesome work done on this, Heart! Heart!
This piece is for sale to raise funds for Lex Wotton’s support fund.
On Friday 24th October an all white jury found Lex Wotton, an Aboriginal man from Palm Island, Australia – a former prison island for Aboriginal People – guilty of ‘rioting with destruction’ for his involvement in the 2004 Palm Island uprising. On November 26th 2004 the people of Palm Island set fire to the local police station, court house and police barracks after a pathologist’s report claimed that the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36 year old local, in police custody a week earlier was an ‘accident’.
Mulrunji died in a police cell, one hour after he had been arrested for being drunk. He suffered massive internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a ‘liver that had been ‘almost cleaved in two’ from a huge compressive force.’
The officer who arrested him, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, claimed that Mulrunji had fallen on stairs. A coroner’s inquest found that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was responsible for Mulrunji’s death, as the injuries were consistent with a beating. However, a court found Hurley not guilty for manslaughter. He has since been promoted, rewarded, and is an Inspector on the Gold Coast.
In comparison Lex Wotton has now been sentenced to six years in prison with a non parole period of two years. Despite being a democratically elected leader of his community and spending the duration of the riots attempting to keep the situation peaceful, and even negotiating safe passage for Police off the island – an offer the Police rejected.
Proceeds from the sale of this piece will be donated to Lex Wotton’s support fund to assist paying legal bills and travel bills for his family to visit.
Please join the campaign to bring global awareness to this travesty of justice
Free Lex Wotton
Today is the International Day of Action in solidarity with Palm Island man Lex Wotton who is due to be sentenced in the Brisbane Court for a riot conviction. Despite being the member of the community that assisted police out of the justifiably angry crowd, Lex was scapegoated and is now facing ten years in prison. While the man who murdered his nephew walks free with a $100,000 compensation and a medal.
There are actions happening across the world today. Check the Facebook group for the full list.
My wee contribution to the legal fund is some patches I whipped up. They are lovingly handmade on calico. No screens, just diy, cut and spray. Perfect for your bag. And all proceeds straight to Lex.
Get one (or lots, but probably contact me first re postage) here.
In solidarity
FREE LEX WOTTON
National Day of Action – Emergency Rally
FREE LEX WOTTON!
Free all political prisoners!
Stop Aboriginal deaths in custody!
Jail Hurley and all killer cops!
Rally and March
12 noon
Saturday 1st November, 2008
Old GPO, Bourke St Mall
For more information:
Tel: 03 9388 0062
0419 53 84 25 or 0401 806 331
Initiated by the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Melbourne
If you don’t know about this case I urge you to visit the facebook camapign page and read more about these gross injustices.