Article 16

Izzy Dooley

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 03:00:59 +0000

Izzy Dooley website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 14:00

I am a 17 year old hailing from the beautiful land of South Africa. I have only been embroidering for the past year and began as a form of therapy. There is a silent sense of healing through the slow work of embroidery which I have embraced and learn patience from such a practice in a world of instant gratification. Embroidery has also taught me to express my thoughts, dreams and journeys in a refreshingly new and contemporary way.

Being in a Steiner or Waldorf school, my 12th year was dedicated to me working on a project of my own choice for eight months. At this time I was struggling with crippling mental illness and somehow through the slow stitch of embroidery, I was able to find my voice again and persevere. It is safe to say that in some ways, embroidery helped me see the light and beauty in life again.

Izzy Dooley

Xhosa, Zulu, Southern Sotho, English, Northern Sotho, Twsana

South Africa

South African

Izzy did not provide a statement about her work.

UDHR Article

Article 16

Quilt

Red quilt

Amy Lanza

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:10:43 +0000

Amy Lanza website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:10

I am a Taiwanese and Cuban researcher, crafter, soccer player, traveller, foodie, daughter, friend and fiancé. While this is my first craftivism project, I am very excited to participate and seek out more ways to make a difference through art.

I am a digital user-experience researcher by day, and cross-stitcher and maker by night. While I have dabbled in various mediums, I have always come back to fibre arts as my main form of creative expression. My embroidery hoops feature sassy sayings and light-hearted musings, many of which are currently displayed in a few shops around Philadelphia. A Florida native, I have lived in Maine, Tennessee, New York, Washington DC, and my current home of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When I am not stitching, I enjoy exploring my city (mostly through food) and researching new cities to add to my list.

Amy Lanza

English

United States of America

Taiwanese, Cuban

As a woman growing up in a multicultural family, I have always been a huge advocate for equality across all races, genders, and nationalities. Naturally, I was drawn to the message provided by Article 16, which espouses marriage equality for all. I chose to stitch the Article components in white so they stood out, and utilised the colours of the rainbow for the title to allude to the LGBTQI+ movement.

This is my first craftivism project. I am extremely excited to join a group of diverse artists to bring awareness to disparities around the globe. Many of my embroidered pieces have focused on increasing a woman’s agency in an unequal society. While I believe we have come a long way in terms of accepting various forms of partnership, we still have a long way to go. Art—and the #UDHRquilt Project—has the ability to transcend differences and functions as a platform for enabling change.

UDHR Article

Article 16

Quilt

Green quilt

Mogalakwena

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:32:17 +0000

Mogalakwena website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:32

Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation (MCADF) was established in 1994 by Dr Elbé Coetsee with the mission to create employment opportunities for previously disadvantaged women; promote and redevelop traditional craft-art skills inherent in rural communities, but which had become dormant due to poverty and lack of marketing opportunities; record and preserve indigenous knowledge of living oral cultures; nurture and develop creativity of children living in remote rural communities; market craft-art design products in selected retail outlets in South African and international locations to promote and market the products created by MCADF; and, promote research with the aim to further not only the understanding and knowledge in the field of anthropology in Africa, but also to establish a national and international awareness and appreciation of African culture.

Mogalakwena Craft Art Village is the creative hub of MCADF. The village is situated in the remote northern part of Limpopo Province in north-east South Africa. It is within walking distance of the neighbouring villages under the authority of traditional chief Kibi in the Blouberg area of Limpopo Province. This area is home to more than 1.5 million Northern Sotho-speaking people (Bahananwa, Babirwa, Bapedi and Batlokwa).

Artists

Blue quilt

UDHR Article

Article 16

What a privilege it was for Mogalakwena Craft Art Development Foundation to participate in the #UDHRquilt Project. Our Craft Art Village is 20 kilometres from the confluence of the Mogalakwena and Limpopo rivers, in the remote northern part of Limpopo Province where South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe meet. Mogalakwena is a metaphor for ‘fierce crocodile’ in local Sepedi language (mogala = coals; kwena = crocodile).

We discussed the project with the embroiderers. After a lengthy meeting to interpret Article 16 in the context of village life in the Blouberg area of Limpopo, we appointed Esther Makgato to draw a picture reflecting this interpretation. She made her drawing on fabric, and presented it to us. Another discussion followed, to finalise the drawing and to confirm the text, before the embroidery began.

This project was meaningful because it raised awareness of human rights and strengthened the self-esteem of rural crafters living in remote villages on the African continent.

Georgie Millard

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:49:56 +0000

Georgie Millard website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:49

Georgie Millard is a wife, mother, health worker and part-time stitcher. She lives in England by the sea with her family and rescue dog, Miss Jean. She was raised in a family of conservatives, but is the black sheep of the family and has very liberal left views!

She learnt embroidery as a small girl and took it up again as an adult to help with her mental health, after suffering with postnatal depression. The embroidery addiction soon took over and before she knew it, her boxes of floss were multiplying and her fabric stash was taking over.

Georgie’s embroidery is feminist and political and she believes in using her craft to get those views out into the world. She loves stitching onto vintage fabrics and thinking of all of the conversations those fabrics have been party to. She believes passionately in the equal rights of all, and is often found on her ‘soap box’.

Georgie Millard

English

United Kingdom

British

I feel so passionately about craftivism and using whatever tools we have to make our voices heard. So, to be able to stitch the Article that lays out the rights of all humans in regard to marriage pretty much made my year.

Marriage is used around the world to enslave women, same-sex marriage is not a right for all, and divorce is regarded as a death sentence in some countries. People are not permitted to marry outside of their race, religion, caste system … the list just goes on.

I decided to stitch my Article in the style of a Western wedding invitation. Article 16 is pretty ‘wordy’, so I decided to keep it simple and use the words alone. I hope that people reading my block will take a moment to really think about the words, and how in reality so many people’s human rights are violated in regard to marriage.

UDHR Article

Article 16

Quilt

Yellow quilt