Craftivism

Earlier this year I was living in London, I was interning at a jewellery company called Tatty Devine, who sent me on a mission to take notes at an event at a pop up shop called Sketchbook (an interesting concept in itself), I met a girl there who told me about a collective she was involved in called craftivism, this to me sounded brilliant, craft and activism in the same combo, so I decided to do some research. On the craftivism website the creator Betsy Greer gives a short explanation of what she has created,

"Craftivism is a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite. "

Via the craftivism website I found a work created by Catherine Mazza, founder of a craftivist group called microRevolt, their mission statement explains that,

"microRevolt projects investigate the dawn of sweatshops in early industrial capitalism to inform the current crisis of globa

l expansion and the feminization of labor."

The group recently completed a giant blanket featuring a white Nike tick on an orange background; the entire piece is knitted by people all over the world, and was eventually sent to the CEO of Nike in protest of their current means of production. This in my opinion is fantastic; I love the idea of heroicising female associated arts as a way of protesting peacefully.

Obviously the conception of craftivism is a progression from the domestic domain of women, these often demonized aspects of women's lives are now being heralded as a new way of expression and voicing serious concerns about current issues. I researched where these ideas of making a difference via craft came from, interestingly enough, I found some World War One propaganda pertaining to women knitting for defense. As well as an initiative from the Ministry of Information during World War 2, which stated "Make, Do and Mend", the Red Cross also promoted "Knit Your Bit", a campaign whose posters featured a nurse knitting and stated "You Can Help". More recently the aforementioned group microRevolt started a campaign called Stitch for Senate, attempting to encourage knitters to make helmet liners for each and every US Senator, attempting to motivate the senators to push for the return of troops from Iraq.

When I was researching this I began to think that it could be a pointless endeavor, despite the fact that I personally enjoy these forms of art making and love the idea of expressing personal opinions that may benefit the community if heard, but I wondered whether there was much success in the way of change, how many of these hardworking, rough handed women (being the majority) were actually being heard? I came to the conclusion that I don't care, it doesn’t matter, as long as the contributors are passionate about what they are prescribing they have succeeded.