Paper short abstract:

The paper intends to show how morality and material culture can be related to each other. This will be demonstrated via a specific art project which deals with issues of feminism, (fiber) art, and activism against sexual violence. The project reflects on how a consent culture could be created.

Paper long abstract:

Since the beginning of the 21st century the craft- and DIY-culture have been booming, from non-political grassroot revolution phenomenons like yarn bombing to social critical crafting projects like The Monument Quilt. A new wave of handcrafters is reclaiming and ocuppying the urban space with various political fiber works. A lot of different scholars and artists have created art shows, panels and have written publications about the (critical) crafting movement. So there exists a wide range of artificial and scientific approaches to the subject, but there are still some blankspaces left which my paper will discuss.

The Monument Quilt is an adequate example to show how material culture deals with issues of morality. The handcrafted artwork, which is made of thousands of quilted stories of rape survivors, is settled on the intersection of moral issues, material culture, and art. The activist project is trying to intervene in how society treats survivors of sexual violence and rape. True to the motto "every tool is a weapon, if you know how to use it" the Quilt's inventors (Force-Campaign) conquer the urban space and try to bring rape culture into the mainstream dialogue.

How can a critical crafting campaign like The Monument Quilt influence common social practices? Which tools are they using for aiming their goals? Is this an utopian idea or can general habits be modified? My paper reveals how moral issues can be materialized in a piece of fabric; it also will discuss the campaign's various activist strategies.