Article 13

Jessica McGowan

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 02:50:19 +0000

Jessica McGowan website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 13:50

Jessica McGowan, a textile artist from Northern Ireland, is a pattern-making enthusiast who takes her pattern-making inspiration from 1950’s mid-modern design. She is heavily influenced by the personal and political, experimenting with traditional mediums—mainly hand-embroidery and print—to interpret her story. She creates sentimental patterns using contemporary colours to combine the traditional processes of printmaking and embroidery, in which she deliberately intends to transform her personal experiences into beautifully coloured artworks.

Jessica McGowan

English

Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

English, Kurdish

I wanted to draw attention to the Syrian refugee crisis. While in Turkey I saw a young Syrian father with his three children collecting water from the local mosque. One in particular plucked at my heartstrings. She was a little older than my daughter at the time (two years old), messy hair, no shoes and covered in dirt, but she was happy and unaware of the war. I used her as my main inspiration for my block: a visual story of a young girl with her uncertain parents on a boat unsafe and ‘locked’ away in a bottle, sending a message that they are trapped at sea, ‘anchored’ to the waves of their possible deaths.

Many of the embroidery stitches are chain, rope and knotted stitches, symbolising the imprisonment many of these people are facing. The colours are also symbolic. Orange was used to stitch out Article 13 because it is a colour of life jackets.

UDHR Article

Article 13

Quilt

Red quilt

Sarah Pedlow

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:07:14 +0000

Sarah Pedlow website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:07

Sarah Pedlow, artist and founder of ThreadWritten Textiles, is interested in traditional textiles, cultural preservation, and creating a global community of makers connected via cultural heritage skills. Her fine art work ranges from photography and mixed media to textiles-based sculpture. From 2012–15 she researched Kalotaszeg written embroidery in Transylvania, Romania, and made products with women artisans. She has attended artist’s residencies in Budapest, Hungary; Iceland; Oaxaca, Mexico; and the Netherlands. Sarah has also spent time studying embroidery in Ukraine. She lives and works in Oakland, California, holds a Master of Fine Art from Rutgers University, and teaches and lectures in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as across the United States.

You can find her online at www.threadwritten.com and www.sarahpedlow.com.

Sarah Pedlow

English

United States of America

American, of Northern Irish, German, English descent

My block and Article 13 speak to several major human rights violations enacted by the current US administration, in breach of one of the nation’s founding tenets. I have stitched a pattern from an Iranian carpet onto a piece of linen from Poland with netting intended for a hat or veil.

Article 13 feels especially timely given the US Government recently placed restrictions on who may return to the United States after visiting certain countries. As an artist working with textiles, cultural exchange and preservation, this issue is particularly significant. Being able to travel is crucial to my work preserving traditional embroidery from other countries. The people I have met and skills I have learned—as well as the inspiration of experiencing life in other cultures by attending artist’s residencies in Hungary, Mexico, Iceland and the Netherlands—have been a crucial part of my life and art practice.

UDHR Article

Article 13

Quilt

Green quilt

Alabamathirteen

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:28:33 +0000

Alabamathirteen website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:28

Alabamathirteen is a Yorkshire-born and based artist obsessed with bodies + spaces + horror. Key themes that run through their work include the impact of visual culture on the development of gendered bodies practices; how marginalised groups, particularly women, occupy public space; and how we use our senses to experience bodies and spaces.

Prior to developing their own practice, Alabamathirteen had been a long standing member of the indie craft community. They produced the first-of-its-kind-in-England monthly market showcasing young and emerging independent and alternative designer-makers. They also formed Leeds Craft Mafia, the first full UK-based member of the international Craft Mafia family, which worked to promote, support and develop creativity in Leeds by offering workshops, skill-sharing and opportunities for local independent designer-makers to showcase their work. They also wrote extensively about independent craft and design for a number of online and hardcopy publications.

Alabamathirteen has previously worked on a number of craftivism projects with Sarah Corbett of Craftivist Collective. They have also had their work included in a piece curated by Betsy Greer, the veritable queen of craftivism, for the exhibition CounterCraft: Voices of the indie craft community at the Fuller Craft Museum.

Alabamathirteen

English

England, United Kingdom

British

I was keen to take part in the #UDHRquilt Project because it feels like the world is going to s--t at the moment and when I don’t know what to do, I like to stitch. I find it personally very meditative, a very gentle yet impactful way to make a statement.

I was particularly drawn to Article 13, as I have a deep affinity to the number 13. When I was reading through the Articles it felt incredibly serendipitous that it talks of freedom of movement, as so many recent world events have found me thinking a great deal about the concept of borders and free movement.

UDHR Article

Article 13

Quilt

Blue quilt

Barbara Bryn Klare

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:48:36 +0000

Barbara Bryn Klare website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:48

Barbara Bryn Klare is a conceptual artist and researcher who uses rescued textiles, photography and other media to reference contemporary culture, society, and politics.

Her work has been exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Budapest, South Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom and has been reviewed in Huffington Post, Woven Tale Press, Art Bra Austin and Culturestr/ke.

She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Barbara Bryn Klare

English

United States of America

American and northern European

I incorporated the concept of Trump’s travel ban into Article 13.

UDHR Article

Article 13

Quilt

Yellow quilt