#SEW THEIR NAMES
This project was prompted by the horrendous death toll in Gaza still rising daily as innocent civilians lose their lives in a relentless bombardment of tents, schools, hospitals and many other sites including mosques and churches.
In coordination with Circus Artspace in Inverness and Highland Palestine Jane enlisted community support to create memorial banners bearing the names of Gaza’s victims – as many as possible on a banner/tapestry.
To see work in progress click on the url: https://vimeo.com/901657356/5aeff83f38?share=copy
One banner was displayed at the Palestine Museum US temporary gallery in Venice during the Biennale and has subsequently moved to Bologna. The original banner is used during vigils in Inverness, and a third banner has been reinvented as a kite – in tribute to the kite runners in Gaza who could often be found flying kites on the shore of the Mediterranean before Israel’s forces began their genocide and wanton destruction flattening large parts of Gaza.
You can contribute to the project at home. All you need is to recycle material – say an old shirt – with one piece of cloth the size of an A4 sheet of paper and small strips of material to write names and sew to attach to the cloth. The finished material can be sent to be added to the banner.
Click here for full instructions if you would like to sign up to help.
Click here for the sew their names request form.
PROTEST WALLS IN EDINBURGH – THE POWER OF MURALS
“Those who are determined to be ‘offended’ will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.” ― Christopher Hitchens
#Summerhall, Edinburgh – #Protestmask project – vast pastel murals in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre Foyer CAT (Creative, Aesthetic,Transgression) started life several years ago as a social media project.
The CAT mask became an emblem of protest spread via social media in 2014. CAT masks, handmade by artist, were adopted by “owners” who travelled the world posting selfies on Facebook and Twitter #proTestbed. ! Originally conceived as a protest against the threat to demolish the maverick architect Will Alsop’s arts venue, Testbed1, in London’s Battersea, the CAT defiantly took on new themes and personae first appearing on an interactive blackboard in The Doodle Bar @Testbed1. The artist’s protest highlighting Bahrain’s oppression of opposition groups received international TV coverage. ! Responding to public demand, Jane Frere created her own protest blackboard in her Highland studio, drawing on darker issues from the blitzing of Gaza in 2014 and the Scottish referendum, to messages smuggled from jailed human rights activists in Bahrain. The artist’s latest response reflects the world’s rude awakening to the rise of altRight, anti-immigrant bigotry, BREXIT and TRUMP. In solidarity with the “Pussyhat Project” for the Women’s march in Washington, Jane’s proTestbed CAT has turned pink with rage. The wall has been updated from time to time to reflect the shifting sands of international politics and the progressive degrading of constitutional and democratic processes as extremist views from the far right astonishingly seem to find a place in public discourse if not civilised debate. And as twisted interpretations of what is deemed ‘acceptable’ discussion take root, any political statement can now be undermined via the perverse notion of ‘not offending’.
2013 – Multi-media installation comprising large print photography, hung artwork including printmaking and oil painting, video reflecting on the experience of living in Palestine behind the apartheid wall…..
@Summerhall 2013 – Return of the soul – the wall the Void http://www.summerhall.tv/2013/jane-frere-return-of-the-soul-the-wall-the-void/