Article 23

Tina Struthers

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 03:18:00 +0000

Tina Struthers website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 14:18

Tina Struthers is a Canadian textile and visual artist. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she now lives and works in the greater Montreal region. The focus of her work is diversity, inclusion and human impact on global societies and environments. She creates textile abstractions that attempt to map the unpredictability of the emigrant experience.

Her work engages with themes such as multiculturalism where the richness of textures and diversity is omnipresent, with a fascination for the movement created by the wind as a metaphor for displacement. Specialising in combining fibre and textile elements with a focus on detailed surface texture, her work has been exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally.

Her art practice also includes the creation of public artworks and the development and presentation of cultural mediation and community arts projects and workshops. She has participated in various group exhibitions and fundraisers supporting diverse causes.

Struthers is a recipient of grants from the Quebec and Canadian arts councils and various prizes and mentions. Her formal training started at the Open Window art academy where she studied visual communication with fine art specialisation, after which the focus of her work shifted to using textile as her principal medium.

Tina Struthers

French, Afrikaans, English

Canada

South African, Canadian

Being an immigrant and self-employed artist, I have often considered work rights as privileges, foreign to my reality. Embroidering this Article reminded me that too often vulnerable individuals—minority groups, migrant workers and refugees—are so desperate for an opportunity to rebuild that they are abused or underpaid in the workplace.

The base for my quilt square is a simple linen child’s apron that belonged to my grandmother. It was most likely made for her by her mother or grandmother, around 1908. During this time rights for workers, especially women, were almost non-existent.

Aprons are work garments, often worn by individuals in circumstances where their rights are not respected. Aprons also protect us or our garments; a simple metaphor to represent the protection of individuals in a work context.

Being a child’s apron, I hoped it serves as a reminder that child labour is still a reality, and this injustice needs to be addressed.

UDHR Article

Article 23

Quilt

Red quilt

Kimberly Saward

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:14:34 +0000

Kimberly Saward website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:14

Kimberly Lowelle Saward, PhD, has been working with labyrinths since 1995, earning her doctorate in 2003 with a study of labyrinth walking as a transformative practice. Prior to her move to England, she worked clinically as a school counsellor and somatic therapist, and taught psychology at Sonoma State University in California. Kimberly is the author of Ariadne’s Thread: legends of the labyrinth, a psycho-spiritual study of labyrinth folk practices worldwide. She is currently researching modern and historic uses of the labyrinth, comparing and contrasting their uses in folk customs, mythology, and spiritual development. Travelling frequently between the United States and Europe as a speaker and an organiser of labyrinth-oriented conferences, pilgrimages, and events, she has a unique cross-cultural insight into the modern resurgence of interest in mazes and labyrinths. She is a founding member of the international Labyrinth Society and served as its president from 2003–08.

In addition to her work with labyrinths, Kimberly is an artist who also teaches fibre arts courses and workshops, emphasising their potential for spiritual practice and community-building. Her own artwork has spurred her to explore traditional women’s crafts in indigenous cultures. She uses her extensive travels to further her research in this field. She is passionate about building community wherever she goes, and is never without a pen to record her journey. Other areas of interest include medieval mysticism and symbolism. In that vein, she is an avid student of the tarot and continues her lifelong interest in Jungian psychology and the study of dreams.

Kimberly Saward

English

England, United Kingdom

American

Kimberly believes that these human rights should all be a matter of course by now, and the fact that we are still fighting for them is a clear call to action. She was delighted to spend time with the words and intentions of the UDHR because they reminded her of the need to shun complacency and actively look for opportunities to make a difference. She was excited to work in collaboration with other artists and activists around the world.

Kimberly has found that the ageing process has served her well. Along with grey hair comes an impatience and a determination to make a difference in the world, both by herself as well as in her collaborations. By joining her voice with others, she believes her message will be louder and go further.

UDHR Article

Article 23

Quilt

Green quilt

Illuminate

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:37:42 +0000

Illuminate website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:37

Illuminate is a moniker used by Stephanie Dunlap, a student, artist, and activist from Phoenix, Arizona, USA. They work individually and with others to create accessible art that engages the global community on an individual level. While varied, their larger body of work delves into ideas of pattern recognition, intersectionality and self-efficacy as a way of understanding and emphasising an individual’s vital role in our global community.

Illuminate

English

United States of America

English, Scottish and German

I wanted to use my block to delve into the complex issue of fast fashion, with particular emphasis on the lives and wellbeing of garment workers. With this in mind, I took on Article 23: the protection of workers’ rights.

I chose to approach this from a personal place: my closet. I cut the tags from my clothes and began to put these women on the map. I used a southern-oriented map because of its history as a symbol against colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy. I embroidered the Article in black thread to symbolise the devastating lack of transparency in fast fashion, and wrapped everything in an exquisite silver to give the piece the illusion of grandeur.

Fast fashion is just that: an illusion. It’s a smoke screen with a body count. Asking #whomademyclothes helps empower garment workers and ensure safe, favourable working conditions for all. Transparency ←→ accountability ←→ change.

UDHR Article

Article 23

Quilt

Blue quilt

Naomi Atkins

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:52:39 +0000

Naomi Atkins website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:52

Naomi Atkins is a student, maker, activist, and group fitness instructor based in Canberra, Australia. She is currently pursuing her PhD in international relations at the Australian National University.

Her research explores the perceptions, practices and power relations that shape, inform and limit counter-human trafficking responses in Australia and Australia’s anti-trafficking activities in South-east Asia. Naomi applies a feminist research ethic to her multi-disciplinary work, which traverses feminist and critical security studies, identity politics, border and migration studies, criminology and sociology.

Her interest in social justice, gender equality and community-building has shaped her research and art practice, and extends to her work as a group fitness instructor. Parallel with building her clients’ physical fitness and health, Naomi uses group fitness to build participants’ (particularly women’s) confidence, expand their social and support networks, and break down barriers through music, movement, connection and celebration of other cultures.

Naomi Atkins

English

Australia

Australian

I’ve been studying human trafficking. It took me several years to comprehend the complex nature of trafficking and anti-trafficking responses, and I’m still learning. These complexities are easily lost in narratives of ‘organised crime’, ‘unscrupulous traffickers’, ‘illegal migration’, ‘bad employers’, ‘backward cultures’ and ‘sex slavery’. These narratives simplify exploitation and inform easy responses that do not prevent and rectify exploitation and abuse, and fail to challenge global inequalities.

I wanted to highlight that labour rights are for EVERYONE, not just the socially and economically privileged. I also wanted to recognise and support the critical voices and efforts of precarious workers who largely continue to be silenced. The red umbrella, for instance, is a shout-out to sex workers and their amazing resistance, resilience and advocacy.

I used bright colours and soft lines and texture in my design to present the beauty of an inclusive and equitable world without the physical and social barriers that perpetuate labour exploitation and abuse.

UDHR Article

Article 23

Quilt

Yellow quilt