Foot-Hold was a series of street-craft workshops to give voice to young people and artists from diverse backgrounds who may have experienced feeling ostracised or unwelcome in Australia’s public spaces. Participants included former & current asylum seekers, migrants, Indigenous people, grrls/women & gender diverse people and members of the LGBTIQ community conveying their stories of acceptance, rejection, belonging & alienation in Australia. And making some kick-arse rad street arts.
The workshops were part of The City of Melbourne’s Signal youth art program in partnership with Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre and with support from The Ownership Project.
Guided by professional artists from diverse backgrounds, Foot Hold combined craft techniques (knitting, embroidery etc) and the street art practice of ‘fling-ups’ where shoes are flung over power-lines. Legend has it that gangs fling shoes in this manner to mark territory & the young and established artists used this technique as a starting point to share their stories & make their own marks on Australia’s street-art scene.
Project
Radical Street-Craft flinging on the theme of TERRITORY
Time
13 Mar – 26 Apr, 2014
Location
Signal, Melbourne, Australia
Credits
Many thanks to the many young artists who participated in Foot-Hold, particularly and to the talented guest artists who shared their skills; Emilia Gonzalez, Kate Hodgetts, Kate Just, Sayraphim Lothian, Amy McMurtrie, Rose Turtle, Jacquie Tinkler, Ilka White.
Also to the generous support of Signal, City of Melbourne, Spectrum, The Ownership Project & Knit Your Revolt and the wonderful support with facilitation from Kylie Blackley, Amanda Haskard, Claire Henry, Leuli Eshraghi, Nicole Hurtubise, Jeany Lee, Paul Morton, Carla Ori and Alice Reed.
Details
A series of street-craft work-shops with young people, mainly from recent migrant and refugee backgrounds, to create ‘fling-ups’ and claim a foothold in public space.
Fling-ups are craft-embellished shoes flung over power-lines in the manner gangs are said to throw shoes to mark territory. Here Jenkins, with the assistance of Signal and local guest artists, shared common craft techniques such as embroidery and knitting with young people to weave their stories into art-works which were then flung up over wires on the street – marking their place in Australia’s public realm.
