Paintergirl chats to the mysterious head honcho of Melbourne's radical Craft Cartel.

What's the main goal of the Craft Cartel?


The main goal of the Craft Cartel is to support makers of radical and subversive craft.  We are all too aware that one of the main battlegrounds in the fight to save our lovely planet is challenging the behaviours of consumption.  The Craft Cartel is about destroying the markets for boring, mass produced, oil-based products and replacing them with interesting, locally made, sustainable stuff.  So we are about supporting makers who strive to make a difference through their work.  It's amazing how nasty and uncooperative the creative communities in Melbourne can be sometimes.  We're doing our bit to promote everyone who makes stuff, no matter how cool or uncool they are.

What excites me is that we're not only radical in the things we do, but also the way we do them.  We're trying to come up with ways of working that question hierarchies and assumptions.

What was the biggest coup for the Craft Cartel in 2008?

Definitely the amount of support we got for the Craft In.  We went out on the day that the Rudd Government delivered the economic stimulus package and engaged in a massive public awareness exercise about the economic power of supporting local handmade economies.  We set up a free christmas card making workshop in Bourke Street Mall, right in the heart of the mad Christmas buying frenzy and with cries of 'buy handmade - it'll make you sexy' convinced as many people as possible that they should forget the plasma tv and buy some awesomely cool locally made stuff instead.

What was most exciting was the support we got from all over the community for the event.  Everyone from small retailers to NGOs to a government department saw that what we were doing was important and worth throwing some weight behind.

And the response from the public was just beautiful.

Who are you targeting in 2009?

Shopping malls.  It's war.

Why and how is cross stitch radical?

Cross stitch itself isn't inherently radical, quite the opposite generally.  But it does have an extremely long history of being used as a medium for subverting mainstream conventions.  For me, I draw on the histories of Victorian women questioning assumptions of femininity and 70s and 80s feminist activist questioning gender roles through cross stitch.  I'm really inspired by generations and generations of women who worked tirelessly on the struggles they were involved in at the same time as making sure their kids ate their veges.  Being a craft activist is my way of saying yes, I want to change the world and yes I'm doing it as a free woman.


But that's traditional cross stitch.  I'm also prone to doing a bit of large scale cross stitch (see next question..) and that's all about challenging the dominant masculinity of space.  Especially the fence work.  I reckon cross stitching a fence not only communicates the message that goes on the fence but also challenges the rigid oppressiveness of a fence that's designed to keep people off land where could live, grow food or start a business.  And at the same time it suggests new ways of doing activism.

What's happening with "the streets of melbourne"?

I got invited to participate in The Streets of Melbourne Festival which is a celebration of street art and culture.  I was asked to do a fence stitch so I decided to expand on a series of small stitches I've been working on.  I'm doing a large scale cross stitch of a QR Code, which is a kind of barcode designed to be read by a mobile phone.  Being Federation Square it wasn't going to be easy to be too overtly political.  So I decided to do it covertly instead.  My piece makes a statement about land ownership which I thought was appropriate given Fed Square is the only privately owned city square in the world (which most Melbournians don't seem to realise..).  The festival is on from the 9-11th of Jan and has some really cool stuff, I recommend a look http://thestreetsofmelbourne.com

What makes you laugh these days?

People that come up with creative ways to make free fun with a radical analysis in this crazy world we live in, like the skateboarders setting up wee skateparks in drained swimming pools in the backyards of foreclosed homes. “God bless Greenspan,” the post read, “patron saint of pool skatin’.”  That's genius.  I've been saying for years now that if you have fun for free it's one of the most revolutionary anti-capitalist acts there is.  The man HATES free and HATES fun!

In saying that, while the act of skateboarding in an old pool can be funny and 'cool', it can also be pretty damn revolutionary.

How do you sustain a crafty revolution?

I think the crafty is how I sustain the revolution.  I came from a world of hardcore political organising where we all worked way too hard and took ourselves way too seriously.  And we all burnt out on a regular basis.
 
I reckon that we have to consider the means to the ends.  There's no point saving the planet if we have a crappy time doing it.  I doubt our grandchildren will be that grateful.

For me, creating change, provoking debate and inspiring action through craft is a form of direct action.  Instead of jumping up and down and saying 'I want to the world to be like this..' I like to just create the world I want to see.  It's a heap less frustrating and way more rewarding.  That sustains me.

Plus I have a two year old with the most kick ass laugh in the world.  It's a bit hard to get down about things with her around!  Making a person is by far the craftiest thing I've ever done.

Top five websites for wannabe radical craft peeps:

http://craftivism.com
http://microrevolt.org
http://stealthissweater.com
http://craftingagreenworld.com
http://radicalcrossstitch.com/wiki