Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre is proud to present its online Arpillera Doll Exhibition which is available to view now at www.roevalleyarts.com
Curated by Conflict Textiles, it has emerged from the online exhibition ‘Embracing Human Rights: Conflict Textiles’ Journey’ and evolved from a recent call for kids to make their own arpillera doll. The invitation was also issued to arpilleristas/makers whose pieces featured in the exhibition, to collectors who lent us pieces, to those who came to the exhibition launch last month and to a wider cohort of people closely connected to Conflict Textiles.
Their response to the brief – to create an arpillera doll connected to one of the exhibition pieces – has yielded rich outcomes. Makers from a host of countries – from first time sewers to experienced arpilleristas have created dolls of every shape, size and hue from scraps of fabric. There are dolls who embody a vast range of actions and emotions and who traverse past, present and future. As the dolls took shape and as their creators gave them colour, action, purpose and voice, they embodied the messages of their makers and promoted a depth of reflection. Uninvited, the makers have passed on these rich reflections to us, the core of which we present to share with you, the viewer.
Above all, these dolls confront us with the glaring gap between the rights articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the lived experiences of many human beings over 70 years later. May the spirit of these dolls and their makers prompt and embolden us to confront Human Rights abuses and to embed a culture of Human Rights within our own community and globally.
We hope you enjoy the exhibition and that you share it with friends and family. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts or reflections via email or through our social media channels. A huge thanks to Roberta Bacic and Breege Doherty of Conflict Textiles for their work on curating the exhibition and thanks to all the makers of the beautiful dolls. They will also stand as a reminder of this unprecedented time in our history where we had to stay home.
To find out more go to www.roevalleyarts.com or search Roe Valley Arts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
