Article 2

Vanessa Ægirsdóttir

website@moadoph.gov.au — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 23:15:15 +0000

Vanessa Ægirsdóttir website@moadop… Fri, 10/12/2018 - 10:15

Vanessa Ægirsdóttir is a textile artist with over 20 years’ experience working with fabrics, yarns, and other fibre-based media. Her earliest childhood memories are firmly anchored in playing dress-up, handmade dollies and crafting. Her mother was a west-coast Canadian hippie with a love for fabrics, embroidery, quilting, and handcrafts, which instilled in Vanessa a love for making things with her hands from even the simplest, often repurposed materials.

She has attended two residencies in north Iceland and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Canada and Iceland. During her time in Iceland, she has spent considerable time exploring ‘slow textiles’ using manual, traditional methods of making fabric. She hand-spins her yarns on a spinning wheel and uses a hand-built frame loom to produce her tapestries.

In her work, her love of Canada and Iceland is evident. Her Iceland Series highlights the limited palette and textural uniqueness of the rugged landscape. In these pieces she uses exclusively Icelandic materials–wool, fish leather, lava rock, and swan feathers. The Canadian works reflect the range of colours found in the scenery that make Canadian landscapes so unforgettable. As with the Icelandic weavings, Vanessa uses exclusive Canadian materials in her Canada Series; materials such as wool, sea glass, quartz, and shale.

In her practice, she puts particular focus on mastering the proper processing techniques and use of the dual-coated wool of the Icelandic sheep (which is a particular challenge) and producing yarns, fabrics, and tapestries from this unique fibre. Additionally, she takes great care and pride in each step of processing fleeces, regardless of origin, to allow each breed of wool to be celebrated and enjoyed for its individual beauty.

Vanessa Ægirsdóttir

English

Canada

Canadian

I chose this particular declaration because of how it relates to the rights and freedoms that I see being violated every day in my community and in the life of my partner, who is a First Nations man. As an advocate for the rights of those experiencing racism, sexism, transphobia, misogyny and xenophobia, I wanted this quilt block to represent each of them by using floss in non-Caucasian flesh tones for the Article text and for each of the French knots along the border.

It was a hugely time-consuming endeavour to fill the border with all of those tiny knots, but the time spent doing so was used to hold these people up and to honour them and their rights.

UDHR Article

Article 2

Quilt

Red quilt

Sarah Joy-Ford

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 03:45:55 +0000

Sarah Joy-Ford website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 14:45

Sarah-Joy Ford is an artist and curator currently based in Leeds, England. She has studied at the University of Leeds, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, School of the Damned and Manchester School of Art. She is co-director of SEIZE projects; an artist-led organisation programming events and exhibitions in the United Kingdom. Recent exhibitions include Queen, COLLAR (Manchester); Weaving Europe: the world as mediation, Shelley Residence (Paphos); SuperTonic, Copeland Gallery (London); and Wish You Were Here, Stryx Gallery (Birmingham). She is the curator of two funded projects: The Guild: contemporary textiles, Temple Works (Leeds); and Cut Cloth: contemporary textiles and feminism, The Portico Library (Manchester). Recent public commissions include collaborative projects for The Yorkshire Year of the Textiles and Processions: a hundred years of suffrage. She is the recipient of the AHRC North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership Award for her PhD studentship. Her new project, Hard Craft, in collaboration with Juliet Fleming, has been funded by Arts Council England and will take place throughout November 2018 at Vane Gallery, Newcastle, England.

Sarah Joy-Ford

English

England, United Kingdom

English

I work with embroidery, quilting and surface-pattern design to ask questions of Queer narratives, fictions, histories and identities. I stitched Article 2 because it declares human rights belong to everybody, without discrimination due to ‘race, colour … or other status’. I suppose sexuality is the ‘other status’.

I wanted to draw attention to the lack of human rights for LGBTQI+ people across the world. It is currently illegal to be gay in 72 countries. Same-sex marriage is legal in only 26 countries, and so few places have protections for LGBTQI+ people in terms of parenting, housing, employment or access to services.

We must challenge discrimination in all forms, everywhere. The United Kingdom (where I am from) cannot claim to be a safe haven for LGBTQI+ people without supporting asylum seekers and refugees who faced discrimination and hate crime in their home countries. Without global solidarity and support, there is no pride.

UDHR Article

Article 2

Quilt

Green quilt

Jes Hallagan

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:21:32 +0000

Jes Hallagan website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:21

Jes Hallagan is maker and mother from Queensland, Australia, who stitches custom family portraits for families all over the world. She has a passion for pop culture and was able to turn her love of crafts and TV into her job.

An active member of her community, Jes loves to help others around her. This is evident in recently launched activism craftivism project of her own, raising money for victims of domestic violence all around Australia by uniting makers to create, after being so inspired by this project.

Jes Hallagan

English, French, Arabic, Greek, Mandarin, Braille, Auslan

Australia

Australian, Irish

I hate injustice, and if I can share my thoughts with friends and family I know I can inspire them to do the same. Our medium is a fun way to communicate issues in a beautiful way … plus it lasts forever!

I’m a mother and have a background in childcare, and wanted to stitch my block inspired by that. It’s a colourful pick and mix, with a deeper meaning that underneath we are all the same, and it’s what society and religion makes us.

There are wedding rings, a cross symbolising my religion, a bunch of other choices I have made that have become part of me. Then there are things that aren’t choices: sexuality, assigned gender, birth nation. I’ve included hands to represent the many hands it takes to shape us into the adults we become. I put the word ‘respect’ in different languages including Braille, and added ‘love’ in sign language, because communication is key.

UDHR Article

Article 2

Quilt

Blue quilt

Heather Berry

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:44:26 +0000

Heather Berry website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:44

Heather Berry is a book-loving, cross-stitching, true-crime fanatic from Chorley in the north-west of England. She is a library assistant by day (a job she truly loves!) and an assistant Scout leader, and enjoys all forms of creative pursuits. Her favourite activities are museum visits, exploring Northumberland in England and being auntie to the best niece and nephew anyone could ask for: the latter have definitely shaped a need for social change.

Heather is confident in her political and social beliefs, gently advocating for mental health and feminist reforms. While she may not be shouting from the rooftops and protesting in traditional ways, she is embodying the art of gentle persuasion, challenging beliefs on these subjects wherever she can. She hopes that she can continue creating art and embroidery to help both these subjects. This is her first craftivist project but she hopes to participate in many more.

Heather Berry

English

United Kingdom

English

Being from England’s north-west, I feel a close association to the UK suffragette movement, as a number of key suffragettes were based here. While in prison, these women participated in an early form of craftivism. Their handkerchief signatures were a statement of solidarity, using what was seen as a feminine pastime to fight for what they believed in.

The signatures on my piece replicate those on a handkerchief, dated 1912 and held at Holloway Prison, to which I added my own signature. Using the same techniques as these prisoners made me feel incredibly close to the subject, and truly appreciate the time and effort that each woman gave, often during hunger strikes.

I utilised the traditional suffragette colours, also as a sign of solidarity with others facing discrimination. Purple represents loyalty and dignity; white, purity; and green, hope. The UDHR Article is stitched on translucent paper to evoke the clouded nature of a society that hides true equality.

UDHR Article

Article 2

Quilt

Yellow quilt