Mick MINOGUE
Merit Award 2009

work shown : Bed-Sit with bottled emotions and Break-up Buddys (2007)
Installation
(click on picture to see larger image)

Project

I need funding so I can develop my career as a textile artist and fund an independence to support my artistic practice. I create textile products for the broken hearted and large plush dolls called « Break Up Buddys ». I knew when I created them in College that I would eventually develop them into something more and begin to build my career around them. I felt so strongly about setting up my career as a full time textile artist dedicating all my time to the practice that I chose not to follow on into the teaching profession which I had been trained in. I believe my work has universal appeal and really challenges the boundaries between gallery based art and product design. I am applying for this award to buy myself time and space to work and dedicate everything to what I love and do best. I need money for a sewing machine which I have never owned as I always hand stitch. The funding would pay for a studio space and production costs. I could sell and exhibit from the same space and really build a strong profile for myself as a serious textile artist dedicating everything to my passion and artistic trade.

Artistic Vision

I want to challenge the idea of textile design and the way it is perceived. I feel I would be more of a tactile artist. I think as adults we have a serious connection to our childhoods that we abandon without notice. Through my textile design I want to reconnect my audience with their nostalgias and use textile design to reinvent their true appreciation for loving an object so personally like your first teddy bear.

In my final year in college I challenged all my confusions and anxieties into an installation of my bed sit. In this replica I housed my textile products for the broken hearted. A human heart made of Jay Cloths to clean up the mess of spilled tears and tough emotional stains. There were bottled emotions along a shelf. Little textile childish representations of feelings such as 'hurt all over again' and 'jealous and horny' lined the shelves. The main pieces I want to develop and sell were my Break Up Buddys. Large plush Sloths who act as comforters to the broken hearted. A set of three, each used for a different stage of a break up. The first based on hurt and anger ... The second was for the absence. Large long arms and legs and he weighs a ton so you won't move from the couch. He has removable butterflies from his stomach when you feel nervous. The last sloth has a new heart ... I want to continue my development and market these to a broken hearted public.