Kirsten Fredericks

"You crochet WHAT?!" - Joe Public

"Kirsten's art makes a subtle yet ballsy statement. It's just outrageous to think that you can cuddle up to a soft, 10-inch phallus. It instantly makes me smile and laugh out loud when I see them." - Gary McEwan, artist

Sydney artist Kirsten Fredericks takes the phallic symbol and, armed with crochet hooks, wool, and her knowledge of a traditional “feminine” craft, turns it on its head. The result is a playful, culturally charged homage to the male reproductive organ.

A knitwear designer for 12 years, Kirsten has created one-off couture for Australian labels such as Cohen et Sabine, Vicious Threads and Beauty of Nature, and department store Myer. Challenged by a friend, she knitted a phallus-shaped scarf in 2007. The resulting design was extremely well received has become her signature piece. However, as she knitted, Kirsten was deep in thought about creating a phallus that spanned three dimensions. Swapping her knitting needles for a crochet hook, the series of “knots” yielded by crochet gave the artist a more texturally stimulating palette with which to work.

Kirsten's first solo show, Work the Ball, was in June 2008 at Blank Space Gallery, Sydney; a collection of over 30 soft sculptures. It featured, among other works, visual and linguistic gags such as a metre-long door trouser snake, and two crocheted members in the throes of a 'cock fight' in a cage.

She has since participated in the 2008-10 Blacktown Arts Festival and the Dirty X Show at the National Grid. Her second solo show, in March 2009, was titled Come Together, again at Blank Space Gallery.

Kirsten continues to hone her craft, mainly through consultations with knit and crochet “elders” in the Australian community. She is influenced by the works of international artists such as Patricia Waller (Germany), Ming Yi Sung (Chicago), Ken Kagami (Japan) and Jack Davis (Santa Cruz), all of whom explore or reference sex and humour in their artmaking.

A resident of Bondi, Sydney, Kirsten recently exhibited a collection of new phallic works based on the Garden of Eden - Adam & Eve - at Blank Space Gallery, using taxidermy, found objects and botanical themes in a playful homage to the bible's holiest power couple.

Kirsten featured in a group show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre at Gymea, NSW - Hands On: Craft in Contemporary Art, January 2011 and also online with Michael Reid Gallery online presenting "Here Comes the Bride". Pop Tarts presents was the next installment with Michael Reid online in late 2012.

She has exhibited with Norm and Elsi’s Art Safari at the Adelaide Festival and Natimuk Frinj Festival.

Seven years on from successful exhibiting throughout Australia Kirsten continues to obsessively chrochet and knit all manner of phallic forms that pay homage to the male member, making 2014 a year for all things naughty and nice.

 

Recent awards

2013

Finalist Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award

2011

Finalist for the Hazelhurst Art Award and Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards.

2010

Blacktown City Art Exhibition: Highly Commended

2009

Melbourne Scarf Festival: Most Outrageous Scarf
Blacktown City Art Exhibition: Highly Commended

Past exhibitions

Nothing is Too Romantic

26th August - 9th September 2016
Patterson Lane Gallery, Avalon

'Nothing is too Romantic' is the hijacking and in turn upending notions of the art of a gentile woman, artist Kirsten Fredericks who crafts her identity through the love of wool, textile and perverse humour.

Kirsten explores what happens when you use crochet and knitting to titliate flora and fauna with nostalgia and genitalia.

 

 

 

 

Fleeced!

4th - 30th March 2016
Michael Reid Gallery - online

 

 

 

 

 

 

MCA ARTBAR

26th February 2016
curated by Giselle Stanborough

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bondi Blowhole

11th - 24th January 2016
Waverley Council, Bondi Pavilion

Bondi Blowhole is presented by Arthole -­ an alumni of six artists showcasing the unpredictable and ever-­evolving nature of their imaginations.

It brings together traditional and modern crafts such as painting, jewellery, sculpture, crochet and digital collage to encapsulate a visual love of colour, humour, perversity and pure, unadulterated, aesthetic joy!

Curated by Waverley Studio Artist Kirsten Fredericks, and inspired by all things perverse, humorous and colourful, Bondi Blowhole -­ part gallery, part gift shop is a treasure chest of inviting, cheeky and fun objects that will stimulate and encourage a point of difference.

 

Growers and Showers

4th - 28th February 2015
Michael Reid online

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bearded Tit

August - October 2014

The Bearded Tit is both a bar and creative space. A happy place for locals, visitors and friends that haven’t met yet, it offers a relaxed and engaging place for a cleansing tipple and a catalyst for conversation and creative musing. Our nest is located at 183 Regent St, Redfern, in the old Legge Gallery building. The Bearded Tit values diversity, the open minded and the open hearted. Striving for a receptive, supportive and creative connection to customer and the larger community, we aspire to be profitable whilst not compromising our vision and values. All exhibition spaces are FREE and are to be used by the artist at NO COST, with a materials budget provided by The Bearded Tit for some projects.

 

 

 

Brand X Artist Residency

July 2013 - July 2014
Brand X Studio, City of Sydney Creative Spaces

In July 2013, a new micro-business initiative was opened in Surry Hills for the visual arts community. Part workspace, part gallery and part retail concept store, the facility is intrinsically linked to the Brand X Visual Art Residency Program, offering 6 groups of 6 artists 6-months of free space.

Kirsten Fredericks showcases her collection of crocheted phallic sculptures using human and animal reproductive organs to create humorous and delightful objects.

 

 

Pop Tarts Presents: Something Naughty or Nice?

December 5 - 19, 2012
Michael Reid Online Exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Comes the Bride

October 27 - November 10, 2011
Michael Reid Online Exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition & Awards 2011

October 23 - December 4, 2011
Yering Station
38 Melba Hwy Yarra Glen 3775 Victoria

Art on Paper

Jul 8 - Aug 14, 2011
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre
782 Kingsway, Gymea, Australia

 

 

 

 

 

Hands On

December 3 - January 29, 2011
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre
782 Kingsway, Gymea, Australia

Hands On is an exhibition of works by contemporary artists using materials not often found in a gallery. Yachting ropes, yarn, grass and even human hair are employed to create works of surprising wit and cultural resonance.

Curated by Cash Brown

Erotica

February 3 – 26, 2011
James Makin Gallery
67 Cambridge St, Collingwood VIC 3066

Erotica brings together a diverse range of contemporary, antique, modern and tribal artworks that explore the ancient urge to express the erotic and sexual dimension of human experience through visual media. The exhibition also explores the liminal spaces between the genres of erotic, pornography, obscenity and the nude, exploring how these borders can shift with changing cultural perspectives.

Curated by Jessica Williams

 

Adam and Eve

October 2010
black_space gallery, Surry Hills

Sydney- and London-based artists Kirsten Fredericks and Sarah Howell explore the holiest of power couples in their first joint exhibition: Adam and Eve.

The artists invite viewers to sample the fruits in their Garden of Eden, with works that explore the masculine and feminine, the playfulness of sex, kitschy animalia and a uniquely perverse, tongue-in-cheek take on all of the above.

This biblical behemoth will feature new works by both artists, including a mural, plus sculptures and prints that are a visual hotbed of colour and pop imagery.

 

Come Together

March 2009
black_space gallery, Surry Hills

Crochet artist Kirsten Fredericks together with designer Matt Hines join forces for an exhibition of unconventional works made from wool and wallpaper.

Come Together is Kirsten and Matt's first collaboration together as artists and "wearable" is not its object. For Come Together Kirsten takes the traditional feminine craft of crochet to make confrontingly soft sculptures creating a textural and humorous world that enshrines the penis alongside its recreational uses. Matt's wallpaper celebrates the male member in all its shapes, sizes, colours and states of tumescence.

 

 

Work the Ball

June 2008
black_space gallery, Surry Hills

Work The Ball was Kirsten’s first solo exhibition, and "wearable" is not its object. For Work The Ball, Kirsten takes the traditional feminine craft of knitting and crochet to make phallic and confrontingly soft objects creating a textural and humorous world that enshrines the penis. Kirsten’s sculptures and installations celebrate the male member in all its shapes, sizes, colours and states of tumescence.

The phallus has long been a driving force in western and primitive art, but never has it been depicted as something to snuggle up to, something that literally gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

 

 

2016 Calendar

"This calendar explores the masculine and feminine, the playfulness of sex, and a uniquely perverse, tongue-in-cheek take on all of the above. If 'hung' correctly, the back of your bathroom door will never look so good!"

This 2016 Calendar is a collection of my crochet phallic work.

Buy now on Etsy, I am offering free postage within Australia.

 

 

 

 

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