The power of craft to bring about change and awareness on the issues and challenges facing society is not new but craftivist Tal Fitzpatrick brings a new lens to this old concept.
Her touring collection of textile banners landed at the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum in early August, exploring themes of gender-based inequality.
Changemakers: Crafting a difference forms part of the Museum of Australian Democracy’s (MoAD) larger exhibition in Canberra highlighting women’s contributions to Australia’s democracy and development.
The broader exhibition, Tal said highlights the “significant women who made a big impact on our society” but her vision was to look beyond individuals.
“My project, which was done in collaboration with a few artists, involved making a series of banners that celebrated not just individuals, but movements that have reshaped our world, and in Australia in particular,” she said.
“So thinking not just about those individual stories, but all those people who participated in everything from women’s suffrage to addressing gender-based violence to queer rights to environmental issues, all the people involved in those community driven grassroots change making projects.
“These banners are really about celebrating people-power and the way people can make a difference when they speak up for what they believe in and for what’s right.”
The touring component specifically looks at issues like gender-based violence, financial abuse and the housing crisis, “things that are really impacting people and their capacity to thrive in the everyday”, through a lens of women’s rights.
Tal views her work as “storytelling devices” that can not only ignite conversations but allow people to find their own voice.
This has and always will be an essential purpose of craft, which has transformed over time as technology evolved but remains rooted in change making.
“Craft has always really been used as part of people’s modes of resistance and self-advocacy, and we can see that all around the world, all through history,” she said.
Yarra Ranges Regional Museum curator Maddie Reece said Tal’s work projects “a contemporary political activist angle” onto the medium of quilts and textile art, traditionally seen as women’s work.
“You make a banner or a plaque when you’re protesting something, but also it’s very much considered a women’s art form,” she said.
“Historically, when women were trying to get the right to vote with the suffrage movement at the turn of the 20th century, they created banners, really fighting for the women’s cause.
“It’s really interesting to reflect on that, 120 years, 130 years on from those first conversations. We’ve had a lot of people come through the museum so far and comment that it really does speak to women’s experience in contemporary Australia, and not just historically.”
Maddie said the museum space itself provides a sense of quiet that allows people to reflect and “absorb their beauty and the talent (and) appreciate them for their complexities”.
“There’s something about the materiality in my work, it’s quilting and embroidery and applique that I think is inherently familiar and comforting to audiences, and that makes it a little easier to bring up difficult subject matters,” Tal said.
Craftivism, the act of using craft for activism, Tal said, was something she stumbled on during her PhD research, and the term and practice combined her work in community development, her activism and her art.
The textile artist blends two fundamental practices into her work: a voice and the community.
“I’m a socially engaged artist, so I was looking at ways to make art in and with community in a way that was engaging and didn’t have some of those barriers to entry that sometimes come up with more traditional ‘fine art’ mediums,” she said.
“There’s an amazing skill set within the community that relates to craft and particularly textiles. So it’s a really good way to do work that is collaborative and participatory and invites social participation.”
Encouraging people to have a voice through craft, whether big or small, Tal will be hosting two workshops at the Museum on Saturday 30 August, after an artist talk.
The first workshop will be dedicated to young people aged 16 to 24, with an all-ages workshop later in the day; both are free.
Maddie said this idea of community engagement and activism is strongly entwined with the Yarra Ranges.
“This region, if we don’t look at just the women’s aspect, does have a really rich history of protest and activism,” she said.
“People fighting McDonald’s, protesting to protect the forest. Uncle William Barak was the first civil rights activist, and Lin and Bill Onus out in Belgrave as well.”
To find out more, and to book, visit: yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Explore-Yarra-Ranges/Events/Changemakers-Crafting-a-difference-Artist-Talk-and-Workshops
