9 March - 20 April 2009 (opening on
International Women’s Day 8th March) The Australian designer Cath Braid, Central St Martins School trained and already known for the social work she has realized in the last years under her label 'Caravana' (until 2008) in Pakistan, continues her ambitious way to create fashion under a new brand name together with her sister Ange Braid: 'Polly&me' works with over 400 women across eight centers in and around Chitral town in the North
West Frontier Province of Pakistan to produce textiles for women’s accessories like handbags and textiles. The newest project, "Gup Shup. The Domestic, the Narrative and Cups of Chai." is about daily life in Chitral. "Gup Shup" means as much as "informal chit-chat and gossip". In Melbourne (Australia) the project takes part in the exhibition 'The World of Small Things' with 23 contemporary hand-embroidered
textile creations by females from Chitral. You can get an insight into the private space of the females in Pakistan "There has been much written about Pakistan and it
precarious geo-political situation. The aim of Gup Shup is to provide a stark contrast to how
Pakistan has been represented, particularly over the past two years. It is strongly felt that the
everyday lives and traditions of common people are not highlighted - particularly the voices of
ordinary women, who very often don’t get heard." Polly&me "During the workshops I used to go home with a certain joy in my heart from my work, I had become workaholic, and was not even aware of the time as we used to be so deeply involved in our work, it was fun, the practicality like practically first doing the task before going into the designing part was just wonderful." publishes Kevin Murray with several images of the artworks from the females from Chitral on www.craftunbound.net/theme/ordinary/pollyme-masterpieces-in-idle-chatter-from-pakistan. Find out more about Polly&me www.pollyandme.com |
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