An ode to long lost pets of the past....

Do you have a once beloved pet which is no longer with you? Maybe it ran away, got pinched, met an untimely end or simply died of old age?

I'm working on an exhibition on loss and grief and I'm planning to do a embroidery display of pets. Pets are great companions to many of us and I would like to commemorate the role they play in our lives. All pets, whether dogs, cats, bunnies, snakes, rats, birds, whatever!

Do you have a good clear photograph of a departed pet you'd like featured? Email cate@polkadotrabbit.com to find out more.

Self Portrait-Day 13 of Blogtoberfest

Created as part of 2008 Fringe Festival's Totem exhibition, held at Federation Square, this self portrait represents my love of bunnies, struggle with body image and depression: (the black dog) and my open heart.... I enjoyed making it, and I've had a few requests by people for their own portraits but nothing definite. I think a personalised totem doll would be an awesome gift for someone special!

Australian Crafters: Want to exhibit your work?

Home is where the Craft is

24th September -October 3rd
Melbourne Fringe Festival
161 Albion St Brunswick

I'm curating an exhibition for the 2010 Melbourne Fringe Festival. The purpose of this exhibition to explore the role of women's crafting as part of and related to one’s home. The items crafted may have a functional purpose at home as opposed to being simply created for artistic or creative purposes.

Crafting is usually carried out in the home, often in a communal area or shared environment such as a kitchen table, living room couch or spare room. The creative process often intersects with other tasks of home life such as watching telly, waiting for the washing machine to finish etc.

Craft as a practice has gotten ridiculously big in Melbourne over the last few years, evidenced by the 60 craft markets for retailers to sell their wares and loads of zines, magazines and newspapers all devoting slabs of column to crafty industries.

Craft's function as a creative practice is somewhat obscured by it's residential location as it is primarily not done in art spaces, studios or collectives. This can mean that it is not held in a high regard as other creative mediums such as graphic design, painting and sculpture.

There are of course a whole load of contemporary about women and home crafting. These include (in no particular order) women’s empowerment in home crafting, crafting and it’s presence in cyberspace. Women as creative directors of small businesses from home, women becoming one woman sweat shops, women underselling their work, it being seen as a poor cousin to graphic and fashion design etc

What Can I exhibit?
Here is an opportunity to expose your home crafted goods in their glory. They can be of any theme related to the mission statement and of any medium. Mediums may include:

• Embroidery/needlework
• Sewing (hand or machine)
• Wool work
• Gocco
• Felting
• Quilting


Works can be for sale or simply for exhibition.

To quote from the site:
Fringe shows are inspiring, shocking, disgusting, surprising, entertaining, challenging, provoking. All of the above and none of the above!

I'm keeping it reasonably small so it's manageable but do have some more space left. Preference and definite priority will be given to work which has been designed and created within the home in a 'traditional' sense. The theme and materials can be quite diverse but preference will be given to work created without use of industrial materials such as industrial screen printers or laser cutters. Paintings and illustrations will not necessarily be considered.

People will be coming to my house to view the work and admire your crafty greatness. There'll also be an opening night and two pop up Sunday markets in my backyard!

Are you interested? Send me an email cate@polkadotrabbit.com and I'll send you the details...
thanks
Cate

Crafters wanted for Melbourne Fringe Festival Exhibition with a difference!

Note: I've reposted this as there was something wrong with the comments enabler on the first post. Apologies to blog feed readers!

Home is where the Craft is

24th September -October 3rd
Melbourne Fringe Festival
Brunswick, Vic Australia

Mission Statement

The purpose of the exhibition to explore the role of women's crafting as something which is very much done in the home, in snatches of time whilst watching telly, waiting for the washing machine to finish etc etc. Craft as a practice has gotten ridiculously big in Melbourne over the last few years, evidenced by the 60 craft markets for retailers to sell their wares and loads of zines, magazines and newspapers all devoting slabs of column to crafty industries.

Craft's function as a creative practice is somewhat obscured by it's residential location as it is primarily not done in art spaces, studios or collectives.

There are of course a whole load of other issues about women's labour being undervalued, women becoming one women sweatshops, women underselling their work, it being seen as a poor cousin to graphic and fashion design etc etc.

Here is an opportunity to expose your home crafted goods in their glory. They can be of any theme related to home crafting and of any medium. Mediums may include:

Embroidery/needlework
Sewing (hand or machine)
Wool work
Gocco
Felting
Quilting

Preference and definite priority will be given to work which has been designed and created within the home in a 'traditional' sense. The theme and materials can be quite diverse but preference will be given to work created without use of industrial materials such as industrial screen printers or laser cutters. Paintings and illustrations will not necessarily be considered.

Fringe shows are inspiring, shocking, disgusting, surprising, entertaining, challenging, provoking.
All of the above and none of the above.

The Venue

The exhibition will be held in my laundry, kitchen and living room. People will be able to wander through these rooms freely to view the work (with some decluttering and basic security constraints)

The backyard will also be open as the entrance to the exhibition and will host the Exhibition launch party and Sunday markets.

Expressions of Interest

If you are interested please email Cate Lawrence cate@polkadotrabbit.com and more info will be sent out to you.