Article 9

Rachel Louise Edler

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 02:42:45 +0000

Rachel Louise Edler website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 13:42

Rachel Edler is a textile artist currently residing in Bristol, England. She uses the free-motion embroidery technique in her work, using vintage fabrics and patterns to contrast with her embroidered illustrations. This is her first time participating in a craftivist project, although she is keen to do more.

Rachel Louise Edler

English

England, United Kingdom

English

This project really resonated with me, partly because it is the medium I choose to engage in, but also because in this political climate, the UDHR needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

Whilst researching my block, I found a multitude of stories linked to Article 9, all heart-wrenching. Rather than using imagery specific to one of these stories, I wanted to create a striking image that people would remember and that would encapsulate the theme of this Article. I chose an anonymous fist wrapped around bars. However, I also wanted to instil the notion of hope within the image. I chose floral fabric to symbolise this, inspired by the saying; ‘They tried to bury us; they didn’t know we were seeds’.

UDHR Article

Article 9

Quilt

Red quilt

Lerato Motau

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 04:31:53 +0000

Lerato Motau website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 15:31

I love the brightness of luminous tones; I refer to them as ‘mashangane colours’. Associations of bright colours as well as embroidery are related to Shangaan people, which is inherent in my own ancestry.

Some of my other works have been inspired by Vilakazi Street in Soweto, where I live. In one project, text was embroidered onto a 30-metre piece of purple and yellow ribbon, which reads like a narrative of Vilakazi Street, chaptering different points of interest along the street. Visitors were invited to embroider symbols, thus including the illiterate.

A long-term project has been the Friendship Skirts, which are personalised skirts made with the individual characteristics of many of my female friends in mind. These skirts have been shown on a documentary in Beijing, and later worn as part of a fashion show in Johannesburg. This project has grown—I have now been receiving requests from people to make skirts for them, and I recently received had a request from a male client for a Friendship Shirt.

Lerato Motau

Tswana

South Africa

Shangaan

Embroidery, and particularly the act of stitching, are important in my work. Each stitch is a symbolic journey.

UDHR Article

Article 9

Quilt

Green quilt

Ashley Catharine Smith

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:25:28 +0000

Ashley Catharine Smith website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:25

Ashley Catharine Smith is a New York-based artist working in photography, video and fibres. Through the combination of these mediums she creates melodramatic depictions of relationships, sex and gender. Her work is driven by her desire to understand how rules about feelings and gender roles affect our interpersonal relationships and sense of self. Ashley explores the complexity of relationships by depicting intimate moments with an additional element of fibres seemingly growing from the surface of the photograph.

Smith has a Master of Fine Art in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work has been exhibited internationally and throughout the United States at the Delaware Art Museum; Society for Contemporary Craft and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh; Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco; Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Slovakia; and the Knockdown Center, New York; among others. She is currently an adjunct photography professor at Drexel University and an instructor at the International Center of Photography.

Ashley Catharine Smith

English

United States of America

American

Article 9 was important to me because of issues plaguing my country. While I was stitching, lawyers and protesters were on their way to John F Kennedy International Airport to fight President Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’. The ban unjustly prevented people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Then, the Trump administration announced that immigrant children at the southern border were to be detained at facilities separate from their parents. The United States also has a history of systematic racism that targets people of colour through mass incarceration.

I stitched on a napkin that belonged to my mother. I used it so she could be part of the project, and because it resembles the colour of my skin. I stitched a gradient of different flesh tones with a technique that mimics the look of hair. By using different flesh tones, I hope to convey a sense of unity among all people. Equality is a human right.

UDHR Article

Article 9

Quilt

Blue quilt

Cat Evans

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:47:26 +0000

Cat Evans website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:47

Cat Evans grew up in Canberra and has recently returned there from living in Melbourne to study art. She is frustrated with the current Australian Government’s lack of empathy towards people who need our help. The #UDHRquilt Project is her first craftivist project and she hopes to be involved in many more.

Cat Evans

English

Australia

Australian

When I was assigned Article 9, I immediately thought of the green tents used by the Australian Government to house detained refugees on Manus Island, and of the terrible ways the people living in those camps have been treated. I chose to do my block in a reclaimed olive-green fabric to represent those tents.

Participating in this project, I was reminded that while we can be quick to call out human rights breaches in other countries, our government is conducting its own. I hope that when people view these quilts they will be reminded that, as a developed, wealthy nation, we have responsibilities to citizens of other countries.

UDHR Article

Article 9

Quilt

Yellow quilt