The Narrative Within

Broken beauty.

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Art for Housewives

above: broom straw and chili to keep the thieves away

Via my stats, I came across a post entitled “Is There an Aesthetics of Broken Things?” written by Tom Leddy, author of The Extraordinary in the Ordinary: The Aesthetics of Everyday Life .

Years ago, I became fixated with the idea of Daily Aesthetics . Beauty comes everyday not just on special occasions and thus was happy to find out about Leddy. But, thanks to Leddy, I was even happier to discover David Doris and his book Vigilant Things: On Thieves, Yoruba Anti-Aesthetics, and the Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria.

Doris use to play in a band called Raunch Hands but gave up playing when he discovered African Art. Mesmerized by aale, objects made of found materials that act as talismans to protect one’s property, Doris even learned the Yoruba language of Nigeria just to study this phenomena in depth.

David Doris, Rocker turned African art expert

In Vigilant Things, David T. Doris argues that aale are keys to understanding how images function in Yoruba social and cultural life. The humble, often degraded objects that comprise aale reveal as eloquently as any canonical artwork the channels of power that underlie the surfaces of the visible. Aale are warnings, intended to trigger the work of conscience. Aale objects symbolically threaten suffering as the consequence of transgression–the suffering of disease, loss, barrenness, paralysis, accident, madness, fruitless labor, or death–and as such are often the useless residues of things that were once positively valued: empty snail shells, shards of pottery, fragments of rusted iron, and the like. If these objects share “suffering” and “uselessness” as constitutive elements, it is because they already have been made to suffer and become useless. Aale offer thieves, regarded as “useless” people, an opportunity to recognize themselves in advance of their actions, to see what they will become.

I want this book!

More Yoruba Culture related info:

YORUBA VEST 1, Nigeria (this vest is so exciting!)

another yoruba vest + talisman foto + amulets, talismans, symbols on pinterest + irini gonou, “talismans”

In this “divination container,” notice the emphasis placed on the head, which, in Yoruba culture, contains an individual’s life force. Courtesy High Museum of Art

Yoruba Egungun Costume (This reminds me in a way of Sarah Rahbar’s FLAGS)

African Yoruba beaded dance ceremony cape + West African Gbo “fetish priest” in batakari jacket adorned with “gris-gris” amulets/talismans, in Hoodoo + Talismanic Shirt + West African Hunter’s Shirt with amulets, Mali

Ifa Pouch

Diviner’s Bag (apo Ifa) + Yoruba Ifa Beaded Bag + YORUBA DIVINER’S BAG 18, NIGERIA + YORUBA DIVINER’S BAG 17, NIGERIA + YORUBA DIVINER’S BAG 27, NIGERIA + Yoruba Beaded Leather Diviner’s Bag + Some Old Bags! +

tribal chair (more great fotos here)

yoruba beaded chair + and yet another beaded chair +

p.s. Anthropology and Aesthetics reference to aale + pdf on African studies, scroll down to page 138 to read more about Doris and aale

Posted in People | Tagged aale objects, Daily Aesthetics, David Doris, Diviner's Bag, talisman, The Extraordinary in the Ordinary, Tom Leddy, Vigilant Things, Yoruba culture | 8 Comments

Mending one’s faith in their fellowman

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Art for Housewives

We are living in a time of great transition which often is very spOOKy. Watching TV news has become a source of anxiety because it’s an overdose of the Wierd and the Wicked. Being surrounded by so much negative energy is fatiguing and depleting. Luckily, little bursts of joy can occur when we realize that there are many people out there who can make us hope again. The other day I came across the site FAITH RESTORING and sighed with relief–it’s nice to know that kindness is not dead.

Michael Swaine

Michael Swaine is another Faith Restorer. He has a treadle sewing machine mounted on a cart (“sewmobile”) so that he can take it to an alley in San Francisco where, once a month, he repairs clothes free of charge. Michael is a ceramics and performance artist who extended his creativity to create a project called Reap What You Sew thus creating a collaboration between the artist and those whose clothes he repaired and an opportunity to create social interaction where there would otherwise be none.

more Michael: Michael Swaine’s Free “Mending Library” Repairs Clothes, Community + In the episode “Street Art,” Spark visits the artist in action as he makes his monthly rounds + Door to Door Darning: Michael Swaine + Michael Swaine is currently building the Free Mending Library in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco

more mending: Living Well: 4 Secrets to a Well-Mended Wardrobe + Creative mending + Basic Mending suggestions + 11 Cool Ways to Reuse Old Jeans in comic form by Yumi Sakugawa

jean patch, fix for a hole in the knee of jeans

hem your jeans tutorial (easiest way ever!)

mending techniques as a form of art —” She Who Becomes Between Awake and Dreaming” by Milliande Demetriou

a poem about mending, kinda: Mending Wall BY ROBERT FROST

p.s. REPAIR | THE HAND-DARN via + mended pants + more mended pants +quick and messy hand darning +

Posted in Mend & Repair | Tagged mending, Michael Swaine, Reap What You Sew, Sewing | 2 Comments

Venice Biennale

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Art for Housewives

My magical friend, Janet Cooper, recently wrote me about about her visit to this year’s Biennale di Venezia. I haven’t been for awhile because the last time I went, well, the art seemed so depressing and alienating. Contemporary art is dominated by conceptual art which, for the most part, does not excite me. However, Janet mentioned artists whose work I do enjoy:

Arthur B do Rosario–years ago I discovered Rosario’s work and wrote about him on my blog. His capes and coats are amazing.

installation by Arthur B Rosario via

Artur Bispo do Rosario

more Arthur: In recent years, Arthur Bispo do Rosario has become Brazil’s hottest art export +

Arthur Bispo do Rosário (1911-1989) + While Bispo`s obsessive needlework unfolds into a fittingly cryptic picture of his entangled mind, many of his ragtag sculptures feature stimulating plastic juxtapositions that could easily be attributed to a trained contemporary artist

Alice Channer interview

Hilma Klint: Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944) was a Swedish artist and mystic. She belonged to a group of artists called “The Five” that all shared a complex philosophical and spiritual understanding of the world. Klint’s work is amongst the first in abstract art. Before she died she stipulated that her work not be shown for 20 years after her death. more Hilma af Klint

Janet also mentioned artists Anna Zemánková + Marisa Merz .

Posted in People | Tagged Alice Channer, Arthur B Rosario, Hilma Af Klint, Janet Cooper, Venice Biennale | Leave a comment

Recycled baskets

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Art for Housewives

Thanks to the wine I drink, I was able to make this basket (indicated by the pointing arrow). Most shops in Italy now use only biodegradable bags but not shops where wine is sold (wine bottles need sturdier bags). Biodegradable bags are obviously better for the environment. But they can’t be used to make plarn as they eventually start crumbling away.

the shop cross the street from my house where I buy wine

a born again basket

For some reason, I have an excess number of shallow baskets that, existentially, serve little. So, with the use of plarn, I’ve starting expanding their life by crocheting them upwards. They are quite fun but not as entertaining as Cordula Kehrer’s Bow Bins.

Cordula Kehrer’s Bow Bins

Cordula takes all kinds of containers and, using basket making techniques, transforms them into something special.

curler basket by Emily Dvorin

Emily Dvorin has the capacity to make baskets from just about anything including hair curlers. Emily also has a blog and writes about creating baskets in her studio: It is good for me, best for me in fact, to let go of expectations when at the studio. I am best with as vague a plan as possible about what I hope to accomplish in a day… It is about flow. Creativity comes in waves. My “job” is to let it come and go, and to allow enough time, a block of time, to go with it. It is about paying attention, concentrating, a certain kind of focus.

Aly De Groot’s GHOST NET BASKETS

Also intriguing are Aly De Groot’s Ghost Net Baskets. Ghost nets are nets that have been abandoned by fishermen and can be damaging to the environment as dolphins, crabs, turtles and birds can get caught in them. Unable to escape, they often die of starvation. In Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria region, a number of female craft-makers have taken these nets to create objects of wonder, too.

I have previously written about baskets here (How to make coiled fabric baskets and rope bracelets + recycled baskets + Mavis Ngallametta). But there are so many incredible other baskets out there to discover: coiled bowl tutorial + bottle cap basket +

Incredible Baskets Inspired By Weather Patterns + Mati made this monumental spinifex basket elaborately decorated with bright coloured wools, painted feathers and gum nuts + Joh Ricci baskets +

Shannon Weber baskets +Jackie Abrams’ coiled baskets + jo-ann van reeuwyk baskets + nathalie miebach HERE and HERE + Fabric Easter basket tutorial +

Contemporary Basketry

Susan Wise baskets

Posted in Crafts | Tagged Baskets, recycled baskets ghost net baskets | Leave a comment

Barefoot College and beads

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Art for Housewives

Recently I saw a BBC program about the Barefoot College and believe it’s worth posting about.

The program I saw showed women from different countries being trained to make solar panels so that they could take this know-how back home and improve their community’s daily life. Many of the women being trained were grandmothers.

Kamla, a pioneering solar engineer helps install and maintain solar panels that keep the local villages supplied with electricity. For another BBC related video, go HERE.

The Barefoot College was founded by Bunker Roy, an Indian social activist. His main objective is that of helping rural communities become self-sufficient. So far he has trained over 3 million people and provided them with the skills to become solar engineers, teachers, architects, doctors, weavers and midwives.

On its website, the Barefoot College is described as ” a non-governmental organization that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40 years, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable.” The college also believes in Empowering Women as agents of sustainable change.

Other:

Victoria Gertenbach makes beautiful fabric quilted beads. They are truly droolable and many examples of these beads can be found on her blog THE SILLY BOODILLY.