next meeting news

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thanks to everyone who took part n all ways, in our September meeting - a great start to the new season.  Also thanks to all who sent me their lovely comments after the meeting.

This email/blog entry introduces the next (Calgary) meeting's format - this format is another first for SDA Alberta! 
Please RSVP now if you want to attend- don't wait till next week!!

Slofemist* - First Public Engagement
with Lois Klassen

“Spend an evening embroidering with visiting Vancouver artist Lois Klassen! Participate in her new project that celebrates the slow pace of traditional handwork and uses it as a metaphor for the progress of the equality of the sexes.”

When: Thursday October 17, 7 - 9:00pm
Where: Possibly John Snow House, Calgary
Cost: A small fee will be requested to cover rental charges

Please email me (Karin) by October 1st to confirm your expression of interest in attending this evening, so that I can book and confirm our venue. 

Details: *Slofemists (Lois Klassen, Lori Weidenhammer, 2013) is a project that enables unhurried production of feminism. Starting with found linen fragments, the project invites participants to materialize through needlework particular feminist voices and feminist moments from the artists’ or their own experience. A library of supply packets that include material and relevant textual and media resources, are part of sewing events or accessed through a lending system.

This project is just getting off the ground. By October 17 it will include a small collection of embroidery patterns derived from feminist inspirations, by the hosting artists (Lori & Lois).  Those patterns will be available on paper and printed onto a few 16 x 16" linen squares. (We have amassed some lovely "found linen" swatches from a high quality drapery supplier. Many of them already feature machine embroidery and elaborate surface prints. This hand embroidery is like another layer of intervention, making them mixed media collage.) Participants can make their own patterns, recommend topics and resources for the kits, or work on the squares that have already started. The materials in the kits can be looked at and discussed during the evening or they can be borrowed and taken home by the participants. Mailing packets will be available for participants to send them back in time. Over 100 squares will eventually become an ornate patchwork cloth that will serve as a couch cover to form a mobile artwork called - Slofa. Slofa which is expected to be a prop to enable public discussions and performances about the slow pace of feminism and the tireless work required to materialize it in one's everyday life.

As this is the first public participation event, some patience would be appreciated... as would constructive feedback on the ideas and the way the participatory element works (or doesn't work)!

Artist Bios - Lois Klassen is an artist and writer based in Vancouver. She is particularly interested in participatory art in the city, and the social life of crafts. Her on-going social sewing project is documented at comforterartaction.org. Lori Weidenhammer is a performance-based eco-feminist artist and educator. She prefers to make art in galleries without walls, i.e. gardens. She is part of the Second Site Collective and a founding member of the Slofemists. She blogs at www.beespeakersaijiki.blogspot.ca. Klassen and Weidenhammer are past collaborators on Means of Production Artists Raw Resource Collective (with Sharon Kallis, 2009) and CornerFarm: Repurposed Planters for Avant Gardeners (2008).

Lois and Lori have collaborated with on a number of previous projects concerning ecology and sustainable lifestyles.