By CASEY NEILL
Embroidery capturing tiny aspects of architecture will appear on Greater Dandenong streets during Cultural Threads.
Artist Sayra Lothian said that Greater Dandenong Patterns emerged from strolling around suburbia.
“I’d been learning how to quilt and it struck me just how similar brick patterns and fence patterns and gate patterns were to quilt blocks,” she said.
“I really wanted to reinterpret them into craft.
“I’m finding architectural fragments around Dandenong itself – wrought-iron gates or stained glass windows – those architectural moments that give a house or a building character.
“I’m taking those tiny bits and embroidering them and then I’ll be framing those in little frames and leaving them around Dandenong for people to find and take home.”
Ms Lothian wants the pieces to make their finders’ days “a bit brighter and just the world a nicer place”.
“I use craft to make tiny, temporary works of art on the street for people to find and take. It’s called guerrilla kindness,” she said.
She urged people to send in photos of the architectural fragments they encountered.
“What we’ll be doing is printing a number of them and putting them up as well,” she said.
“There’ll be an exhibition of the interesting bits of Dandenong.
“I’ll be embroidering some of the contributions and I’ll also be walking around Springvale, Dandenong and Noble Park to find my own pieces to embroider.”
She also plans to create a ‘hero piece’ that will be on display.
The month-long Cultural Threads will build on its 2014 incarnation and celebrate textile art and cultural diversity.
The City of Greater Dandenong-hosted event will feature knitting, crocheting, dyeing, weaving, needlepoint, yarn art and more.
People of all ages and backgrounds will be guided by some of Australia’s most celebrated artists to forge connections, trade skills, share stories and interweave cultures.
There’ll be activities at multiple venues including Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens, The Drum Theatre, the Dandenong and Springvale libraries and Harmony Square.
“I’ve done Cultural Threads before,” Ms Lothian said.
“They did a workshop at the Australia Day festival two years ago and they were wishing ribbons.
“People wrote wishes for the coming year. They were attached to a giant maypole.
“The council asked if I could do something with those ribbons to extend the life of the project.
“I made them to hang around the light poles of the new council offices. They were ribbon wish-catchers.”
She said the council kept the ribbons when the artworks came down and another artist would use them in a new Cultural Threads project.
“They’re doing some kind of yarn bombing,” she said.
“I love the idea that the wishes of the people of Dandenong are continuing to be used, so they’re continuing to be honoured. Just to throw them out seems wrong.”
Cultural Threads is a satellite event of Craft Victoria’s Craft Cubed Festival.
Email ‘architectural fragments’ photos to arts@cgd.vic.gov.au.
