Media Release by Caitlin Eyre, Jamfactory, Adelaide
6 June 2019
Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Revisiting the Traditions of Barossan Women’s Folk Crafts
Kinder, Küche, Kirche features artwork by contemporary female artists and craft practitioners in response to the historical folk crafts and cultural traditions of the German migrant women who settled in the Barossa Valley. As a part of this year’s South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Festival, JamFactory focuses on the historical craft practices of the Barossa in order to both preserve the precious matriarchal knowledge of the past and celebrate the living traditions of today’s contemporary female craft practitioners.
Exhibitors: Joy Day; Makeda Duong; Ilona Glastonbury; Ursula Halpin; Dianne Hedger; Brigitte Jeanson; Brigitta Keane; Rita Koehler; Deborah Prior; Rose-Anne Russell; and Kylie Waters.
Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Revisiting the Traditions of Barossan Women’s Folk Crafts
is showing at JamFactory Seppeltsfield from 13 July – 15 September 2019.
Women’s domestic craft practices often reveal the wealth of skill, creativity and ingenuity that is produced in the private sphere of the home for the benefit of their family, friends and community. As a part of this year’s South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Festival, JamFactory focuses on the historical craft practices of the Barossa in order to both preserve the precious matriarchal knowledge of the past and celebrate the living traditions of today’s contemporary female craft practitioners.
In the German Lutheran communities of the Barossa, traditional folk crafts have long been practiced by women as a means to maintain their distinctive cultural identity, express religious values, commemorate familial events and solidify community bonds. Popularised throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the German slogan Kinder, Küche, Kirche (“children, kitchen, church”) was used to describe the idealised traditional role of women as good Lutheran mothers and housewives in society.
JamFactory presents Kinder, Küche, Kirche, an exhibition of contemporary artworks and selected historical artefacts that celebrate the traditional folk crafts and cultural traditions practiced by the German migrant women of the Barossa and their descendants. While many examples of these folk crafts are held in museums and personal collections, the contemporary practice of some of these crafts continues to provide strong links to the German cultural traditions of the people who settled in this region.
Traditional folk crafts undertaken in the Barossa in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included textile crafts such as embroidery (particularly whitework and redwork), Berlin woolwork, knitting, sewing, quilting, weaving, needlework and basketry, as well as the more unusual crafts of foilwork, pokerwork, chip-carving, leatherwork, hairwork, and the making of pictures crafted from wax, feathers and seashells. While much of the craftwork that migrant women performed was routine and often utilitarian in nature, their skill and creativity was still revered in the decoration of domestic objects to make the family home comfortable and cheerful.
Kinder, Küche, Kirche asks contemporary female South Australian artists — Makeda Duong, Ilona Glastonbury, Ursula Halpin, Deborah Prior, Rose-Anne Russell and Kylie Waters — to respond to these historical female crafts that were practiced in the Barossa while simultaneously exploring the cultural traditions, values and belief systems that underpinned daily life in this distinctive German settlement. In conjunction with these artists, JamFactory has invited contemporary practitioners of these traditional crafts — Joy Day, Dianne Hedger, Brigitte Jeanson, Brigitta Keane and Rita Koehler — to display their artworks to attest to the living history of the Barossa.
A number of the featured artists and craft practitioners featured in this exhibition have German heritage, ancestral links to the Barossa or are currently living and working in the region.
6 June 2019
Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Revisiting the Traditions of Barossan Women’s Folk Crafts
Kinder, Küche, Kirche features artwork by contemporary female artists and craft practitioners in response to the historical folk crafts and cultural traditions of the German migrant women who settled in the Barossa Valley. As a part of this year’s South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Festival, JamFactory focuses on the historical craft practices of the Barossa in order to both preserve the precious matriarchal knowledge of the past and celebrate the living traditions of today’s contemporary female craft practitioners.
Exhibitors: Joy Day; Makeda Duong; Ilona Glastonbury; Ursula Halpin; Dianne Hedger; Brigitte Jeanson; Brigitta Keane; Rita Koehler; Deborah Prior; Rose-Anne Russell; and Kylie Waters.
Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Revisiting the Traditions of Barossan Women’s Folk Crafts
is showing at JamFactory Seppeltsfield from 13 July – 15 September 2019.
Women’s domestic craft practices often reveal the wealth of skill, creativity and ingenuity that is produced in the private sphere of the home for the benefit of their family, friends and community. As a part of this year’s South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Festival, JamFactory focuses on the historical craft practices of the Barossa in order to both preserve the precious matriarchal knowledge of the past and celebrate the living traditions of today’s contemporary female craft practitioners.
In the German Lutheran communities of the Barossa, traditional folk crafts have long been practiced by women as a means to maintain their distinctive cultural identity, express religious values, commemorate familial events and solidify community bonds. Popularised throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the German slogan Kinder, Küche, Kirche (“children, kitchen, church”) was used to describe the idealised traditional role of women as good Lutheran mothers and housewives in society.
JamFactory presents Kinder, Küche, Kirche, an exhibition of contemporary artworks and selected historical artefacts that celebrate the traditional folk crafts and cultural traditions practiced by the German migrant women of the Barossa and their descendants. While many examples of these folk crafts are held in museums and personal collections, the contemporary practice of some of these crafts continues to provide strong links to the German cultural traditions of the people who settled in this region.
Traditional folk crafts undertaken in the Barossa in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included textile crafts such as embroidery (particularly whitework and redwork), Berlin woolwork, knitting, sewing, quilting, weaving, needlework and basketry, as well as the more unusual crafts of foilwork, pokerwork, chip-carving, leatherwork, hairwork, and the making of pictures crafted from wax, feathers and seashells. While much of the craftwork that migrant women performed was routine and often utilitarian in nature, their skill and creativity was still revered in the decoration of domestic objects to make the family home comfortable and cheerful.
Kinder, Küche, Kirche asks contemporary female South Australian artists — Makeda Duong, Ilona Glastonbury, Ursula Halpin, Deborah Prior, Rose-Anne Russell and Kylie Waters — to respond to these historical female crafts that were practiced in the Barossa while simultaneously exploring the cultural traditions, values and belief systems that underpinned daily life in this distinctive German settlement. In conjunction with these artists, JamFactory has invited contemporary practitioners of these traditional crafts — Joy Day, Dianne Hedger, Brigitte Jeanson, Brigitta Keane and Rita Koehler — to display their artworks to attest to the living history of the Barossa.
A number of the featured artists and craft practitioners featured in this exhibition have German heritage, ancestral links to the Barossa or are currently living and working in the region.