I created this textile protest banner recently as part of Tal Fitzpatrick's contribution to Six Moments in Kingston, a public art bus tour in the City of Kingston on Sat/Sun 18/19 and 25/26 May, 2019. The event is curated by David Cross and Cameron Bishop to celebrate the Kingston history. Six contemporary artists working across performance, music, craft, installation and video have collaborated with local community groups to develop projects that retell Kingston's history in exciting new ways. Artists include Tal Fitzpatrick, Laresa Kosloff, Shane McGrath, Spiros Panigirakis, Steven Rhall and Field Theory.
Craftivist Tal Fitzpatrick (co-developer of the United Declaration of Human Rights Quilt Project) explores Moment #1: 1976 when Julie Cooper is the first woman elected to local council going on to becoming the first female mayor of Moorabbin. She put a call out through a number of workshops and on Instagram to craftivists and artists to create protest banners for bus tour participants to carry in a reenactment of a historical protest. Sixteen bus tours will be conducted over the two weeks in May 2019. For more information you can go to:
https://www.kingstonarts.com.au/PUBLIC-PROGRAMS/SIX-MOMENTS-IN-KINGSTON
or
http://publicartcommission.com/project/six-moments-in-kingston
A public group exhibition of all protest banners is planned at Kingston Arts, 979-985 Nepean Hwy, Moorabbin, Victoria in September 2019. More details to follow closer to this date.
My banner was based on my ongoing research into Australian slave history including Blackbirding. In this artwork I wanted to prompt thinking about the internal slave/slaver relationship in our internal world. The part of us that stops our freedom in our mind. A cowardly part of us that tries to protect us yet hinders our growth and freedom of thought and action. As both a psychologist and artist I am aware that it takes courage to challenge this part of our mind; through my art I hope to encourage others to step up to this challenge.