Extreme Crafts 25 05 - 12 08 2007 at Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius Lithuania ::
the exhibition will completely embrace the spirit of the DIY movement–with major artworks, crackpot projects, and hands-on workshops (via Garth Johnson who I believe wrote the catalogue essay).

excerpt from introduction essay: (read the rest here)

Handicrafts are increasingly being used by artists and designers as a source of inspiration and method of manufacture. … Punk knitting, origami with an agenda and epic cross-stitch have surged in numbers. … Customisation is also experiencing a renaissance. Technology, perceived to be removed and sophisticated, is being re-attached to the user by the democratic ‘anyone-can-make-and-do‘ … self organised groups of artists and makers are creating forums for people to do it for themselves. … Crucial to Extreme Crafts is not only the product of craft, but the process of crafting: the gallery spaces will be activated by different groups invited to demonstrate their activities and importantly, visitors will be encouraged to participate.

Some of the participating artists include:

Sonya Schonberger is spending a week in the gallery space sewing an entire newspaper. The many hours of labour as the intensive sewing allows Schönberger to study the usually swiftly consumed media image.

Claudia Borgna’s accumulation of tightly folded plastic bags represents her relationship with discarded materials and the environment. Her installations are part of an ongoing observation and questioning of how ‘plastic’ and the natural realms interact with one another.

Catherine Bertola creates site-specific works with dust, skin cells, hair and dirt to recreate patterns and elements from times gone by. For this exhibition she has painted a pattern from a Lithuanian domestic interior with dust and has revived the endeavours of a previous artisan, in the stark Modernist halls of the exhibition space, acknowledging the history of the site which was once home to bustling shops and domiciles.

Tyre printing with Refunc and Garbage Architecture by Refunc / Jan Korbes

Jan Körbes from the Netherlands takes disused objects to create interiors, research projects and workshops based on recovered waste materials. The curators of this exhibition challenged him to find furniture solutions for the exhibition spaces. Employing the help of a team of local people, Körbes set about creating strange amalgams from objects which would ordinarily be discarded and considered useless such as bald car tyres, old sofas and bits of metal and wood.

The exhibition also includes community events and workshops (see timetable for more details) such as a knitting marathon, the second hand clothes remix and the refunc garbage challenge,

See more images at flickr and see the exhibition timetable here - if anyone is going to this - would love to hear about it.

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