From the series Dub Freight
Dub Freight #487-#496, linen second-hand fabrics, print, painting, embroidery, 2023.

The Dub Freight project was conceived in 2020 and is ongoing.
Begun as a way to use materials at hand, make something out of nothing in constrained circumstances (Covid 19 lockdowns) and maintain contact and exchange of energy between artists and colleagues. Rectangles of recycled fabric with text and value amounts (numbers in a sequence of making) printed on the surface were and continue to be shared with people for an exchange of feedback on the future life of the cloth.

During a residency at Lottozero in 2023 Sarah CrowEST made a special edition on heavy, antique linen, sourced from Prato charity shops. The artist exercised a light touch through multiple processes (sublimation, foil and screen printing, digital embroidery and labelling), allowing the qualities of the linen and signs of time to remain visible.
The series is available on the Lottozero online Store and on LON Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

I wondered what it would be like to ‘print money’ to give away, to generate ‘wealth’ starting with only what I have at hand and to create a currency.
At first the €, $, £, or ¥ figure or number was symbolic, being neither the purchase price nor the actual value of the cloth. The €, $, £, or ¥ figure is actually a number in the sequence of making but presented as currency. I hope it might provoke discussion around the value of materials and processes, their use and abuse, the nature of circular economies or just endless circulation.
Over several years, as the project has grown, the sequence/currency number has become the actual price.
Mostly I hope the €€€€s stimulate care […]
Sarah CrowEST

British-born, Melbourne based artist Sarah crowEST works across discipline boundaries of contemporary art, social practice and textile craft. Her recent output occupies a conceptual space between painting, working apparel and the graphic qualities of text. CrowEST takes a critical interest in the provenance and value we place on objects, the processes and materials they are made of and their use and reuse.
She has a PhD from University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, 2013. Recipient of many awards, her work is featured in the book Vitamin T. Threads & Textile in Contemporary Art, edited by Phaidon, 2019.
CrowEST is represented by LON Gallery, Melbourne.

www.sarahcrowest.com
Sarah CrowEST Portrait