Hello, my name is Deborah and I am busy knitting my way to Rome!

I'm an emerging installation and textile artist from Adelaide, South Australia, and I was recently awarded the Helpmann Academy British School at Rome Residency for 2016. This fantastic prize means I will be living and art-making in Rome for three months at the prestigious British School at Rome, where I will meet all sorts of interesting and clever artists and scholars from around the Commonwealth!

This residency is almost fully funded by the Helpmann Academy (how good is that?!!) thanks to the generous funding of David and Pam McKee and the Wood Foundation. However, art-making and art-adventures are expensive endeavours and I leave so soon (March 31 2016) that I'm busy scraping all my pennies together to make the most of this opportunity! This is where you come in: I would love your financial support for this project and I've been busy knitting up some delightful oddities as very memorable rewards. 

All the rewards for this project have an anatomical theme, because my art practice explores all the strangeness and wonder of the human body: the thrills and anxieties...and of course the unescapable reality of our own mortality. In Rome I'll be building on this theme as I spend my days searching out relics, remains, and exploring the wonderfully weird world of incorruptible saints. It would be fantastic if you could share a small part of this journey with me! 

The funds I raise through this campaign will be used primarily to cover some of my studio expenses in Rome. This includes:

--Entry fees to museums, art galleries, archaeological sites, churches etc... I have a list of every place I'm aiming to visit and I'm estimating it will cost me up to $500 - yikes!

--Art Materials to make new work during the residency. I'm bringing a lot of things from home in my suitcase (paper & ink, threads, beads, fabrics, yarns, leather scraps, assorted salvaged fabrics...) but I'll probably need to purchase extras depending on what transpires in the studio. And of course, part of the great experience of making work in a new place is discovering new materials to work with. Who knows what I might find?! $350 of the funds will go towards materials.

--The British School of Art has a superb library. This means lots of note taking and, when my writing hand falls off, lots of photocopying. I'm pretty sure I can get through $60 of copies in a three month residency...

--Freight to bring my art home to Adelaide. During my residency I'll be making new weird and wonderful things. I'd like to bring them home with me and this might require an additional parcel or two on top of my suitcase. Using the Italian postal service (instead of an $$$ international courier) I reckon $290 will make it work.

If I am very lucky and I exceed my campaign goal, any extra funds will go towards one of the field trips planned for my residency: I will be travelling to Bologna to visit the fascinating anatomical museums of the Musei di Palazzo Poggi, and Saint Catherine of Bologna. Saint Catherine is has been sitting upright for many centuries, refusing to decay, and she is the patron saint of artists to boot!

The main challenge my project faces is time: I leave for Rome on the 31st of March!

Luckily, I'm an excellent strategist, list-maker, and I knit fast!

I'm aiming to have most of your rewards posted to you before I leave for Rome. Any pledges that I receive in the last few days of my campaign may be posted to you from Rome within the first few weeks of my residency. I will keep you posted (accidental pun!!)

Please note: If you select a "stitched print" of any size as a reward, I am getting these editions printed to order. To ensure that I have time for printing before I head to Rome, please make your selections by midday (Adelaide time) Thursday 23rd March. If you select a stitched print after this date, you will be waiting a little longer (I am estimating mid-May) but I think it will be worth the wait regardless :-)