Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest

Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest

Liz Stops

 KNAG banner

Photo: Clare Twomey 2013

Abstract This paper focuses on the use of knitting as a protest tool by the Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG), a group formed to combat the development of Unconventional Gas Mining (UGM) in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. KNAG is socially and politically motivated, but not aligned to any political party. The group’s ‘Nannafesto’ emphasises care for community and country while protesting against corporate greed. I situate KNAG within a broad historical and contemporary framework of similarly motivated movements that have used knitting as a tool for social, cultural and ideological influence. I also elaborate on the act of knitting as a form of witness bearing, a means to facilitate calm persistence, a strategy for processing ideas and an instrument for reinforcing the threads connecting community. Read full paper

Abstract from: Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

Knitting nannas, political, CSG, craft, activism

Unfinished business: Craft and revivification

Unfinished business: Craft and revivification

Mae Finlayson and Karen Hall

Mae Finlayson, All my love, Anon. (stretched doily) (detail), 2013, yarn, pins and embroidery hoop, dimensions variable

Photo: Mae Finlayson

Abstract Reactivating incomplete and discarded domestic craft projects is an exploration of how such objects can mediate between presence and absence. Contemporary creative work that gathers and reclaims the unfinished projects acknowledges, extends and plays with their rich materiality as well as the dormant stories embedded within them. Using unfinished objects can be a way of speaking to loss and absence, and an assertion of the presence of other voices in the act of repurposing. A material dialogue, created through the trace of the hand and the repetitive labour of crafting, emphasises the potential within these discarded objects. The tension between the implied presence of the first maker and the displacement of the past through revivification is the entry point to nostalgia, a label that implies both being out of place as well as out of time. While nostalgia is often seen as an innately conservative practice, functioning as a reductive stand-in for the richness of the past, we take up Svetlana Boym’s (2001) argument that the impossible longing of reflective nostalgia can be productive, humorous and utopian. This essay explores the interplay of past and present in the process of finding, remaking and repurposing. Read full paper

Abstract from: Unfinished business: Craft and revivification

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

 

craft, unfinished, trace, materials, nostalgia  

Crafting new spatial and sensorial relationships in contemporary jewellery

Crafting new spatial and sensorial relationships in contemporary jewellery
Sabine Pagan 

Sabine Pagan, Site #2, ring, 2009, 9k yellow gold cube (handmade), surgical steel mount (rapidprototyped), 35 x 35 x 12 mm

Photo: Emily Snadden

Abstract The body occupies a significant place in both contemporary jewellery and architectural practice. The wearable object is made for the body and, therefore, invites the presence of a wearer, even if only metaphorically. Similarly, our built environment is constructed in relation to the scale of the human body and to accommodate our actions as users of architecture. Yet, important to both practices is the relationship between the object — jewellery or architecture — and the body beyond its physicality.

This paper examines embodiment from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Drawing on Jack Cunningham’s model (2005) maker–wearer–viewer as a framework, I propose an extended schema that integrates the object within the relational dynamics, with the aim to investigate the embodied relationship between object and wearer.

Underpinning the research is a case study that I conducted on the sensorial qualities of Peter Zumthor’s architecture, in particular Therme Vals. The study demonstrates that the embodied experience of the architecture by the user contributes to the development of these qualities.

In this paper, I argue that the transposition and testing of this concept in jewellery generates new relational variables, from which a new methodology of practice in jewellery informed by architecture emerges. Read full paper

Abstract from: Crafting new spatial and sensorial relationships in contemporary jewellery

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

jewellery, architecture, cross-disciplinary, wearing, senses, Therme Vals

Craft and the archive: Museum collections and memory in a Balinese village

Craft and the archive: Museum collections and memory in a Balinese village.

Siobhan Campbell

Unknown artist, Hanoman, c. 1900, kober, natural pigment on cotton cloth, 490 x 530 mm, Forge Collection E074236

Photo: Emma Furno, courtesy of the Australian Museum

Abstract This paper examines the different forms of indigenous agency embodied in a museum collection and identifies personal relationships as a constructive platform from which to understand objects in collections of material culture. Specifically, it describes the results of a field investigation to gather Balinese responses to the Forge Collection of Balinese Art at the Australian Museum. This approach reflects the broadening vision in museum practice and scholarship over the last decades, recognising that most museum institutions describe themselves as the custodians or guardians of collections and seek to engage with the indigenous communities that produced them. Most people in the village of Kamasan in East Bali, Indonesia, have recollections of the late collector and anthropologist Anthony Forge, given that only 40 years has passed since he lived in the village with his family. This paper relates some general responses to his collecting project before considering the complex and productive relationship between Forge and the artist Mangku Mura. Not only is it apparent that the relationship between artist and anthropologist–collector had implications for the material form of art produced in the village, and subsequently housed in the museum collection, it shows that traditional artists produce their art in defiance of conventional understandings of ‘traditional’ art. While this paper is an occasion to reflect on the applicability of a particular field methodology and approach to other cultural collections, it also points to the wider implications for interpreting ‘traditional’ practices by opening up to debate ideas about timelessness and originality in the context of changing social relations. Read full paper

Abstract from: Craft and the archive: Museum collections and memory in a Balinese village

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 1 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

Museum Collections, Balinese Art, Kamasan Village, Fieldwork, Source Communities,
Anthony Forge

The strange quiet of things misplaced: Craft, material and memory in the work of Elisa Markes-Young

The strange quiet of things misplaced: Craft, material and memory in the work of Elisa Markes-Young

By Belinda von Mengersen

Elisa Markes-Young, The strange quiet of things misplaced #33, 2010, acrylic, pencil, pastel, wool, cotton and silk on Belgian linen, 550 x 1100 mm

Photo: Christopher Young. Licensed by VISCOPY Australia

 

 Abstract This paper will consider the relationship between the performative nature of craft and the transformation of memory, as exemplified in the work of Elisa Markes-Young. Particular reference will be made to her series The strange quiet of things misplaced (2007–2011), which is based on memories of domestic linen from her Eastern European childhood. This discussion offers a provisional reading of the series, relating to the concepts of craft, material and memory, and considers how devices like encounter and mimicry can elicit both memory and improvisational craft practices. Markes-Young, who has no formal training in traditional textile techniques, describes her process as a literal activation of memory through making, giving rise to the question: ‘Can the techniques of material practice provide the means for not only creation and reflection, but also an altogether new “encounter” between the artist and her work: occasioning both new works and enriched memories?’ Such a proposal contrasts with the popular conception of artists drawing on memory to inspire their artworks: here, it is suggested, memory is encountered, activated, and enhanced by physical and conceptual craft practice. Read full paper

Abstract from The strange quiet of things misplaced: Craft, material and memory in the work of Elisa Markes-Young
Full paper published in craft+design enquiry:  Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

Memory, Conversation, Encounter, Material-Practice, Performance, Creative-Research

Craft.Material.Memory NOW ONLINE

Issue 6 (2014)  Craft.Material.Memory, edited by Anne Brennan and Patsy Hely

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE 
http://press.anu.edu.au/titles/craftdesign-enquiry/issue-6-2014/

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Cover image: Bob Katter wearing a KNAG (Knitting Nannas Against Gas) Hat
Photo: Jenny Leunig, 20 June 2013

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