Article 24

Brinley Froelich

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 03:20:34 +0000

Brinley Froelich website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 14:20

Brinley Froelich is a multimedia artist who focuses on embroidery, yoga and the written word. She was born in Oakland, California, and now lives deep in the heart of the valley in Salt Lake City, Utah. Influenced by writers of the nearby deserts such as Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and Terry Tempest Williams, her work is rooted in the imagination of place. As a white person inhabiting Indigenous land, her work also seeks to restore rights, land, and power to those from whom it was unjustly stolen.

Embroidering was a common practice taught through the Mormon culture in her youth, but it was while studying Chinese poetry in college that the medium generated a new way of looking at it. In her class, Su Hui became her focus, a poet known for hand-stitching a palindrome poem for her distant lover. Learning about Su Hui sparked a new style of art for Brinley, in which she explores the intersections of visual and written art by layering ancestral, heritage poetics and stitches on top of modern, printed photographs. It is the artist’s hope to continue exploring how the past shapes the present, using a forward-thinking perspective to imagine what new worlds we can sprout from today.

Despite being against work as defined by our global economy, she still enjoys the kind of work that falls under her own terms, or the kind that directly impacts her community in positive ways. Whether it be hosting yoga workshops, promoting artists under the Boo Forever Collective, self-publishing zines, or educating people about the harms of mass incarceration, her work seeks to dismantle the oppressive nature of capitalism, white supremacy, and the violence that falls under the umbrella of the patriarchy.

Brinley Froelich

English, Mandarin

United States of America

European descent

Work does not define our worth. Many of us are stuck in jobs we don’t love because we need them to survive. The irony of working for survival is that it’s also deadly—those who are overworked or underpaid are often burdened by ill health or early death.

I was drawn to Article 24 because it’s important to define our lives around the things we choose to do, not what we are coerced to do. A meaningful life is created through our leisure activities—like spending time with friends and family, catching up on sleep, entertainment, relaxing, travelling, or creating art—things that fall outside the realm of production and consumption. The quiet moments of life are truly defining, and everyone by nature of their humanity has the right to enjoy those. This short and simple Article alludes to the need for us to prioritise the lives we lead outside of our jobs.

UDHR Article

Article 24

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Red quilt

Erica Mena

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:15:02 +0000

Erica Mena website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:15

Erica Mena is a poet, book artist, and translator. Their book Featherbone (Ricochet Editions) won a 2016 First Horizon Award, and their translation of The Eternaut by HG Oesterheld (Fantagraphics) won a 2016 Eisner Award. Other translations for Fantagraphics include Wrinkles by Paco Roca, The Ladies-in-Waiting by Santiago Garcia and Javier Olivares, and Spanish Fever edited by Santiago Garcia. They’ve received fellowships and residencies from Banff, Vermont Studio Centers, Arteles (Finland), and Trexel (Paris). Puerto Rican by descent, they live in Providence, Rhode Island, and are a lecturer in book arts and literary arts at Brown University.

Find them online at www.acyborgkitty.com

Erica Mena

Spanish

United States of America

Puerto Rican

I chose Article 24 because I became disabled in 2016 and was bedridden, unable to work or create art in ways I had been doing before. I struggled intensely with feelings of despair, worthlessness, and terror of becoming uninsured and homeless.

The image represents my loss of ability to have or enjoy rest—when you’re confined to bed, you are not resting. It also represents the loss of childhood play, or adult rest, experienced by exploited peoples all over the world.

The fabric is from a guayabera, a dress shirt worn in Puerto Rico and many places colonised by the Spanish. It is worn traditionally by labourers, but on days of celebration and leisure. Capitalism trains us to associate our value to our labour. Art allows us to consider associating our value to our rest: that you are valuable because of who you are, not what you do. And that you deserve to rest.

UDHR Article

Article 24

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Green quilt

Lauren Leone

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:38:18 +0000

Lauren Leone website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:38

Lauren Leone is an artist and art therapist living in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband Mike and their dog Ripley. Lauren meets with individuals in her art therapy private practice, facilitates a community-based art therapy craftivism group, Crafting Change, and teaches art therapy courses at Lesley University.

Lauren became interested in textiles when one of her friends gave her an embroidery kit almost 15 years ago. The slow, meditative process of stitching and the comforting nature of the materials captivated her, and she began to use embroidery to tackle emotionally-charged content within her own art-making—and found it therapeutic. The deliberate process provided a sense of control; the slow tempo allowed for reflection. This new insight into how art could not only impact people but also help them was part of what led Lauren to pursue a career in art therapy.

A decade-and-a-half later, as a fibre artist and practicing art therapist, Lauren continues to incorporate craft techniques into her personal art-making and in her work as an art therapist and educator. In an effort to bring more attention to the unique therapeutic properties of craft in general and craft’s potential for collective social action in particular, she pursued doctoral research in Mount Mary University’s Professional Doctorate of Art Therapy program, where her research investigated how craft activism can support art therapy participants in being agents of social change.

Lauren Leone

English

United States of America

American, of Dutch, French and Italian descent

Article 24 should be a right, but is still largely a privilege. I used embroidery and appliqué to illustrate the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company Factory fire in New York City. Almost 150 workers died, mostly immigrant teenage girls who had been working 12 hours per day, 7 days a week for little compensation. The factory owners had not maintained safety features that could have prevented the tragedy, even locking exit doors to prevent workers from taking breaks.

This fire brought increased urgency for labour reform, including a focus on women’s and immigrants’ rights. Unfortunately, sweatshops and low wages remain typical within the global garment industry. In the last five years, fires and a building collapse have resulted in over 1,600 worker deaths.

We who are privileged often equate crafting with leisure but for many people worldwide, craft is a form of low-paid, gendered, exploitative labour. Also, this Article reminds us to consider how and where our apparel is manufactured.

UDHR Article

Article 24

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Blue quilt

Carol Maurer

website@moadoph.gov.au — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:53:06 +0000

Carol Maurer website@moadop… Mon, 10/15/2018 - 16:53

As an experiential artist, I intertwine stories, connections and history through my work with fibres, paper, labyrinths, psychogeography and ancestral/historical research. I am inspired by the interconnections of people, documents, materials and land. My goal is to express the mind–body connection of my inner and outer landscapes. The inner landscapes are expressed through creative and active meditations including working with fibre (embroidery, knitting, cross-stitch), walking the landscape and labyrinths, and shifting through historical documents and histories. And I express the outer landscapes by exhibiting visual art created with fibres and on paper and experiential activities including pilgrimage, psychogeography, community work, artist residencies in schools and discussions.

Carol Maurer

English

United States of America

American

I love working on Aida cloth, so I utilised a piece left over from another project and embroidery floss I already had in my stash. Aida cloth provides a structure and a count, similar to our calendar (year, month, week, days of the week) and time (days, hours, minutes, seconds). My lines of stitching represent work: sometimes boring, sometimes creative, sometimes varied but always within the confines of calendar/time/Aida count—until you reach a sewn button, which represents vacations/holidays, time off, leisure, etc.

The Paris button was a gift sent to me by my dear friend Kimberly Saward (who stitched Article 23 on the Green Quilt!). It represents friendship as well as a symbol of protest against the US President’s decision to not sign the Paris Agreement. We need fresh air and a clean environment in order to enjoy a safe, healthy life and engage in leisure activities.

UDHR Article

Article 24

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Yellow quilt