'Red Barn Dreaming' references a fantasy of a simple life living in a red barn surrounded by lush green pasture. In this idyllic space, anxiety, struggle and the many juggles required in a day does not exist. This has been an ongoing imagined escape route since my time living in London over 15 years ago when underground travel and long dark winters first triggered 'Red Barn Dreaming'.
Anna Farago, September 2011
The plan was to craft Felicia's House. Felicia was the initiator of my local craft group and she is the 'Queen of Craft'. This house was designed to represent Felicia and the home where she started the craft group. As it was up for sale when 'High Craft' was happening, the piece was to honour the many crafting sessions that occurred there. Unfortunately the scale, proportion and trick perspective resulted in the piece looking more like a 'McMansion' than the warm and beautiful home that Felicia and her family had created.
Anna Farago, September 2011
Since 1996 I have intermittently lived in the air, most notably whilst living in Japan. This piece references the precariousness I feel when I'm elevated to such heights. Unlike the princess perched high above her pea who nestles into a deep sleep, in the air I slip, slope and slide. My home is knitted together, and soft in case I should fall. Should the wind blow hard or the ground start to jolt and swirl, I will slowly, gently and in a slightly ramshackle way, find my self returning to the earth, placed upon the land.
Laurene Vaughan, August 2011
Yes I am officially over the hill...
Today was the final day of High Craft. The buildings had been looking out at passersby and had passersby look back at them for the last three weeks. I visited occasionally and took photos. This was not easy with the reflections from the glass window. I tried to get a shot with the entire 'community' in view.
There are a number of reflections I have had from doing this project:
1. I love working with crafty women
2. I should have planned the install more thoroughly and created more of a 'presence' for the community. I think the buildings could have worked more successfully as a 'group'. They should have appeared more separate from the items on sale in the shop. The space was restrictive in some ways but with better planning and possibly a different backdrop it could have been resolved more successfully.
3. Even though I loved printing the material for the signage I think the scale of it was wrong. It had too much dominance. I was concerned about this from the onset so I should have allowed time to experiment.
4. I would like to continue working in this way, coordinating installations and collaborating with others. Specifically I would like to continue projects with women with a varied lifestyles, experience, skills and interests. I have an idea up my sleeve for something next year...
5. Having said all that, I did enjoy that the whole process seemed to flow quite easily. It all came about quite quickly and seemed to happen quickly too. I am very humbled by the support I received from the women who contributed, my colleagues and students who listened and helped out, and from my family who put up with the sewing machine going at odd hours and accommodating various impromptu crafternoons and nights.
Because such a large part of my life is consumed by very small children, it seemed obvious that my building would be essentially a toy. My evolution into a crafty person has come about almost entirely as a result of my children, starting with sewing stuff for the kinder fete and moving into toys and kids clothing and more recently into quilts for their beds. This house was made entirely from things I had in the craft box - felt, some plastic to make the sides a bit stiffer that has been in that craft box as long as there has been one, hobby fill and thread. I wanted to give it a fancy name like 'Maison delabree' which translates as 'ramshackle house', because the house looks (to me) kind of french, but is a bit wonky and ramshackle and having a french name is so pretentious and it is such an unpretentious little toy.
Julie Clayton, June 2011
I knew from the start wanted to make a lighthouse- and that it was to be a crooked lighthouse but I wasn’t sure quite why. I have a lot going on in my life at the moment and I didn’t make a commitment to High Craft because I didn’t think I had the time to ‘do the job properly’. A couple of nights before the deadline I had my bag of felt out and before I knew it I was stitching away at my crooked lighthouse- making a determined effort to have crooked stitches too. I realised on finishing my lighthouse that I really need a lighthouse to show me the direction in my life and to save me from crashing on the rocks! And as Josh Cunningham writes in the Waifs’ song Lighthouse- “steer my ship on through the storm”!
Jacqueline Sansom, June 2011
This is my 'kulcha' - origami, small-ness, attention-to-detail, obsessive and 'kawaii' - some typical qualities of the Japanese. It was a way to connect with my Japanese-ness but through the making, I was surprised with how much it consumed me. I tossed and turned in my bed, dreaming about origami Irises and miniature sparrows. Was my inner Japanese-ness wrestling to take control over my western outlook and lifestyle..?
Yoko Akama, June 2011
