Weaving guts and wool into fantastic knitted creations, artist Emily Stoneking has made a line of (sort of) anatomically correct, partially dissected, knitted creatures.
Caitlin McCormack creates crocheted animals that appear to decay in front of your eyes, delicate corpses crafted from cotton string and glue. To produce each of her sculptures she must stiffen the string which produces a consistency similar to the bone tissue of the animals she is recreating. These fragile remains appear extremely macabre, a typically cute hobby made somewhat morbid.
Documented on dark backgrounds, the details of her creations are all the more apparent, string dangling from bits of the animals’s arms and wings as if it was truly decomposing. By using a technique inherited from her deceased relatives McCormack says she “aim[s] to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism’s skeletal remains.”
Alaina Varrone is the Connecticut-based artist behind a wonderfully strange and cheeky collection of meticulously sewn, erotic embroidery.
Although Varrone attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and Columbia University, she is self-taught when it comes to her craft. Many of Varrone’s stitch-y subjects are unapologetically erotic in nature, something that the artist does not do in order to be considered unorthodox, but rather something she found herself drawn to after studying socio-cultural anthropology (with a minor in theology, nice) at Columbia. Deeply moved by the concept of female empowerment, Varrone started embroidering explicit nudes and erotic situations with folk art undertones. As you will see, Varrone’s work takes a delightful and somewhat demented twist on classic folk art by using modern, off-beat and risqué subject matter.
A seditious and subversive subculture is gaining momentum in Melbourne. But rather than wielding megaphones and placards, they’re cross-stitching slogans on hurricane wire and constructing plush female genitalia from craft supplies.
Following four local women who’ve taken a seemingly staid past-time and injected it with a youthful, modern aesthetic, filmmaker Anna Brownfield shows a side of craft more closely aligned with punk DIY culture than with Martha Stewart and ‘home sweet home’ tapestries.
“I wanted to show that craft was no longer daggy but had moved into a new era and was being reclaimed by women who had been brought up as feminists.” – filmmaker Anna Brownfield
Starring: Pip Lincolne, Gemma Jones, Faythe Levine, Rayna Fahey, Casey Jenkins and the awesome Melbourne craft community
Anna Brownfield is a Melbourne based independent filmmaker who makes films about sex and craft.
For Sydney folk Mu-Meson Archives will screen Making it Handmade, Oct 2nd, 2010.
Mu-Meson Archives at Crn Parramatta Rd & Trafalgar St Annandale (Sydney) at the end of King Furniture building up the steel staircase. Phone 02 9517-2010
At Large Gallery are proud to present “Patchworked”, the first ever Melbourne solo exhibition by Nicole Tattersall. Opens Friday 17th run until Thursday 30th September, 2010.
“Patchworked” is heavily influenced by the art and craft techniques of times gone by, Australia and a recent trip to Germany. Incorporating these factors with her passion for animal rights and the encouragement of using ones imagination. Working with more illustrative styles both in 2D and 3D formats, has allowed Nicole to get a little darker.
In the exhibition there are 3 illustrations, reflecting upon WSPA’s (World Society for the Protection of Animals) campaign against the live export of sheep. These illustrations have been designed to be a conversation starter about the topic. Much like most of works planned for “Patchworked”.
Patchworked – Solo Show
At Large Gallery
208 High St, Northcote, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Exhibition Opening: Friday 17 September 2010, 6pm – 9pm
Exhibition: Friday 17 September – Thursday 30 September 2010