An open platform for all Aotearoa New Zealand designers to have a voice and be heard
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‘Add to the Cake’ — join the project!
“Imagine a future in which we can see ourselves reflected in a vast community of inspiring womxn* — womxn of colour, queer womxn, trans & non-binary identities and all who participate in the definition of womxn*. What would it mean to be seen together, as a powerful community that is challenging notions of representation and revealing a greater collective image? And how could that expanding visibility transform the way we model not only our work but the way we model ourselves for future generations?”
The pair have set out to gather names and faces of influential womxn* of the cultural industries in five days: by Friday 21 June, 2019.
The network has reached Aotearoa via one of our Directory members, Sophie Rzepecky who alerted Katie Kerr, having recognised a parallel with the work of Designers Speak (Up). Gabriel and Ina ask:
“Would you give us permission to include your image in this large scale artwork which honours a community of womxn* in a collective montage installation?
Foregrounded in the open call image: Adeola Enigbokan, Alice Rawsthorn, Aynouk Tan, Carly Rose Bedford, Lonny van Ryswyck, Nadine Sterk, Riksa Afiaty, Simona Castricum, Yandell Walton & Yetunde Olusanya. All images are displayed with permission.
Join this collaborative work and upload your photo here. Please share this as much as you feel comfortable through your own connections of incredible womxn*.”
Their aim is to “build an intimate ecology of identities based on collective appreciation and create a community-led representation that is built from within our networks and connections. To appear together is a powerful statement for the future of gender representation.”
From symposium to exhibition
6 July – 3 November 2019
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Dresden
Stemming from the ‘A Woman’s Work’ symposium, which took place at the Japanisches Palais in Dresden in January 2019, ‘Add to the Cake’ is an exercise in enacting the kind of transformation that design, architecture and arts are about to experience. It develops over the course of an exhibition, an active public program, and a series of performative moments over the course of six months. The preview, which will take place from 26 April to 4 July 2019, introduces a larger audience to the themes of the symposium and becomes an in-progress environment where the forthcoming exhibition comes to life.
Womxn* is an attempt to get away from patriarchal language. A spelling of “women” as a more inclusive, progressive term that not only sheds light on the prejudice, discrimination, and institutional barriers womxn have faced, but to also show that womxn are not an extension of men. The term is more intersectional than womyn because it includes trans-femme and non-binary identities. This work expands on the term to include trans-masculine identities.
