Kate Dunstone
I am a maker. I am a collaborator.
Sitting between art, craft and design, my practice is defined as social making. Social is intended in the recreational, interactional sense, with making used as a general term for a wide range of disciplines and modes of creativity, from design and illustration through to knitting and woodworking. By embracing this wide range of practices, I intend to break down any expectations of output, instead focusing on the particularly tactile nature of my approach.
Craft is social. Design is solitary.
Using the social template of knitting groups and sewing circles, my recent practice has sought to merge traditional modes of social making with publication design and bookbinding. The symbolically collaborative and tactile nature of designing publications, as well as the opportunity to provide a platform for identity, makes this method a valuable tool in developing dialogue and social bonding between collaborators, and an interest in processes of creativity.
Design is powerful. Design is for everyone.
I identify my practice as intrinsically political in its aims and execution. By sharing skills such as bookbinding, I aim to break down the idea of the artist as uniquely gifted individual, and place the means of media production in the hands of collaborators outside the arts. My approach to collaborative work is influenced by intersectional feminism and discussions of power, authorship and representation, and I am constantly learning through my practice how to better respond to these ideas.
Forming/Storming/Performing Zine Making Event
knotworkshop trailer
