bentenlaughing

Jan.s: Chisayo, you create objects which are whimsical and yet vivid...so full of life!  How & where did your interest for creating your art  begin...? Chisayo: My grand mother was a kimono dress maker. She gave me lots of off cuts and taught me how to make simple bags. My mother loved  sewing and knitting also.  I always watched them. It was amazing to see how a flat piece of material was turned into a bag, a dress, a flower, decorations...I started sewing when I was about 10.  I learnt sewing at highschool then I went to kimono dress making school and learnt how to make Kimonos. When I had my first child 10 years ago,  I started making  soft toys for my daughter.   One day, I made a felt cake for my daughter and she loved it very much and I was happy too, so I made another felt cake the very next day. Then I made a hamburger, a hot dog, sushi...and I ke...

Jan.s:  Alwyn, you write about the earth with such an immense feeling of belonging.  Alwyn: I guess I’ve always had the feeling that we belong to the earth, not the other way around. Whenever I see those huge open cut mines I shudder at what we do to the earth for financial gain, even the weight of the cities man builds on her seem an imposition. I remember being quite a small child in New Zealand and after an earthquake my father took me to see where the earth had opened in a great jagged scar and I wondered at that early age if the earth had cried out in pain.  Jan s:  Your book “Call of the Currawong” begins with an aboriginal woman in a seemingly benign setting – but the story quickly unfolds to reveal cruel and devastating circumstances. Where did the seed for this story germinate? Alwyn: In talking with some aboriginal women it occurred to me that although their circumstances and the circumstances of my grandmother’s life were v...