The Maker And The User is an installation that displays a piece of contemporary lace-work depicting women working in a sweatshop. This hand-crafted object sits quietly next to a large quantity of mass produced technicolour clothing, purchased from local opportunity shops.
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| Installation view and motel entrance (photo Shane Hills) |
Exhibited In the Kar-rma Motel (curated by
Kristian Haggblom) as part of the
Mildura Palimpsest #8, Collaborators and Saboteurs,
The Maker And The User was adapted to suit the space of a motel room. A
motel is a space where we are accommodated by strangers, providing a
safe and familiar harbour in an unfamiliar town. Cotching mimics this
relationship by cocooning her work in a space constructed from the work
of unknown people, utilising mass produced clothing as shelter for a
single hand-crafted art object.
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The Maker And The User (detail)
Bobbin lace, 2011 |
The installation poses questions about the nature of labour and the role of the individual in an exchange driven world. The viewer is invited to weigh up the value of the two components: the work of an individual artist with its bourgeois connotations, and the the mass produced work of the process worker that has been purchased, used a little, then discarded.
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The Maker And The User (work in progress)
Stitched clothing, 2011 |
The textile industry has a long history of labour, exploitation, wealth,
and revolution. At the beginning of the 19th century disgruntled
textile workers stormed factories and destroyed the machines that had a
devastating effect on their lives. Today as consumers we collaborate
with large and oppressive industries by viewing the things we use as
products of a machine or company, rather than the product of another
person's work. If we were to acknowledge the human aspect involved in
creating our possessions we may realise we have not paid enough for
them, and our conscience may ask us to sabotage the lifestyles we have
chosen to enjoy.
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The Maker And The User (work in progress)
Bobbin lace (bobbins, thread, pins and pillow)
2011 |
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