Textile Fibre Forum Issue 142-June 2021

#142
JUNE 2021
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Contents ISSUE #142, JUNE 2021
04
03 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR – Moira G. Simpson

56 SITUATION SVENJA – Svenja
REGULAR ITEMS
58 ADVERTISER INDEX
59 READER GALLERY
61 BOOK REVIEWS
64 ALL THAT SPARKLES – Molli Sparkles
ng
Hessi
Mona
ARTIST PROFILES
04 MONA HESSING – Cathie Griffith with Julie Brennan

41 JANE SKEER – Jane Skeer 26
47 MANDY GUNN ON WEAVING AS ART FORM – Mandy Gunn
War and Pi
eced
12 SHIMMERING - THE MONA HESSING TRIBUTE PROJECT
EXHIBITIONS
– Julie Brennan with Cathie Griffith

27 WAR AND PIECED – Moira G. Simpson
40 THREADS THROUGH ART - AUSTRALIAN TAPESTRIES
– Emma Collerton
12
FEATURES
21 LIVING QUILTS – Jane Ingram Allen

52 TE SERAI – Ansie van der Walt
g
merin
Shim
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Letter from the Editor
Moira Simpson
Most of us have a WIP of discarded materials that to most for giving permission for their use.
of us would appear to be destined for For the last decade of her life,
(work-in-progress) or a the rubbish or recycling bin. In the Hessing lived in Tuross Head on the
UFO (unfinished object) Reader Gallery, Joan Mahony shares southeast coast of NSW. Materials
tucked away somewhere— images of her sculptural works
made from materials commonly
that had belonged to her and had
been in storage since her death were
and possibly several. used on farms—nylon hayband and donated to the Eurobodalla Fibre
old hoses. Jane Skeers and Mandy and Textile Artist Group (EFTAG)
I
am embarrassed to say that I Gunn—both profiled in this issue— by local artist Barbara Romalis,
have a UFO dating back to 1976: have each repurposed various items, who had been a friend of Hessing.
a sculptural woven tapestry that including old books, marketing Two EFTAG members, Mischi West
was warped up on a large loom made flyers, bicycle inner tubes, and rachet and Lorna Crane, suggested using
from scaffolding but was removed straps, to make large wall reliefs these materials as the inspiration
when only half finished. I keep it in and installations. Repurposing offers for a group exhibition which led
an old wooden trunk, the sisal warp the added potential for imbuing the to Shimmering: The Mona Hessing
and pure wool weft still emitting their artworks with subtleties of meaning tribute project. Inspired by Hessing’s
powerful aromas when occasionally drawn from words, uses and histories artworks and her words, eight
I lift the lid and rediscover it. Each associated with the past lives of EFTAG members created artworks
time, I think to myself ‘I must finish these materials. that reflected their responses and
it – I just need a loom’. Some of you Other articles include a review of incorporated some of the donated
may have used the periods of social the exhibition Threads Through Art - materials, which included sisal
isolation during the pandemic to Australian Tapestries, which shows as well as some hand-dyed and
attack your WIPs; if not, you may tapestries made during the past hand-spun wool with silk slubs.
find it useful to read Molli Sparkles’ fifty years through collaborations The exhibition is an inspiring
advice about how to deal with WIPs between painters and weavers. While demonstration of how Mona Hessing’s
and avoid the guilt that they so often changes in subject matter and style influence can continue to impact on
arouse. One possibility is to recycle are evident, these works are all artists today.
them—or have someone else take on two-dimensional. In contrast, the Finally, US artist Jane Ingram Allen
that role. However, I am not yet ready important mid-twentieth century makes ‘Living Quilts’, patchworks
to do this with mine. move from flat weaving to sculptural made from coloured handmade paper
Patchwork is the quintessential forms is evident in the work of Mona embedded with flower seeds which
example of recycled textiles, Hessing (1933-2001), a leading germinate and grow into colourful
traditionally made using scraps of Australian fibre artist who was active art installations. There is something
dressmaking fabrics or recycled old from the late 1960s. Her experimental particularly moving about the idea
clothing. In the review of War and approach led to innovations in of these supposedly ephemeral art
Pieced, you will see a fascinating moving weaving off the loom and installations continuing to grow and
collection of historic quilts made into the realm of sculptural fibre renew themselves each year. At a
primarily from military uniform art, and she received several major personal level, these installations
fabrics, with a surprising array of commissions for large tapestries and have a particular poignancy when
colours and designs. Some of these fibre sculptures for private and public just a kilometre from my home is the
are further embellished with beautiful buildings in Australia and overseas. blackened landscape of bushland that
beadwork or embroidery. Through a good deal of hard work, was ravaged by a recent bushfire,
Ansie van der Walt describes an authors Cathie Griffith and Julie and which is already showing the
innovative project in which staff and Brennan were able to track down first green shoots of new life. The
students in the USA and Europe and obtain photographs of several renewal of the Australian bush after
used recycled clothes to create of Hessing’s large-scale sculptural a fire is like a natural Living Quilt
modular tapestries that could be works, which are used to illustrate which we see all too often, but which
used to personalise standard refugee the article. We are very grateful is a reminder of the resilience of the
shelters provided to Syrian refugees to those who now own or curate natural world.
in Jordan. Three contemporary artists these artworks for providing the
show that a creative eye and lateral photographs and to Norman Sanders,
thinking can lead to imaginative use who manages Mona Hessing’s estate, Moira Simpson
Never miss an issue! www.artwearpublications.com.au 3

ARTIST PROFILE
Anthony Browell, Mona Hessing, 1973, 39

x 28.9 cm (sheet); 31.4 x 20.8 cm (image),
gelatin silver photograph on paper, National
Portrait Gallery. © Anthony Browell.
AUTHOR: Cathie Griffith with Julie Brennan
Mona Hessing
Australia
From the 1960s through to the 1980s, Australian fibre artist, Mona Hessing
(1933-2001) was instrumental in bringing weaving from the constraints of fine
cloth made on a loom to three-dimensional constructions and monumental hand-
woven forms incorporating knotting, twisting and folding. Her innovative methods
threw away convention and had a great influence on contemporary weavers in this
country. Mona, although often described as softly spoken and modest, raised the
profile of weaving as an art form and must be regarded as one of the most important
twentieth century artists in Australia
Mona Hessing, Circular rug, 1965, 3.5 x 271 x 264 cm, wool, hessian. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Purchased 1999 (1999.101). Photo courtesy of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
ona was an only child who Art School). At college, she studied though his great love was painting.
M lived with her grandparents

until she was twelve. Her
earliest memories are of creating her
interior design, ceramics and textiles.
She taught herself to weave on an
old loom and began exploring the
They married in 1957 and, although
achieving little personal creative
work, living with the intensely
own world, using her own resources, possibilities of working with different creative Leonard was a formative
and doing things alone. She materials; she wanted to make and essential part of her artistic
remembers her grandfather calling something thick and pliable using development.
her a ’one-man band’. Although unconventional forms. In 1967, Mona and Leonard
introverted, Mona gained confidence After graduating with honours separated. Leonard went to London
through excelling at school. in 1956, Mona taught for two years and, in the ensuing years, Mona
Art classes excited her and she then worked as an interior design started to establish herself as an
was encouraged by her art teacher consultant but she wasn’t sure that artist. She became well known for
to do an art course after completing this type of job would give her the her large sculptural weavings which
high school. Mona was awarded creative outlet she desired. In the late were often seen in public buildings. In
a scholarship to the East Sydney 1950s, Mona met Leonard Hessing 1967 and 1969 her work was selected
Technical College (now the National who was studying architecture, to be shown at the Biennial of
Subscribers get a free newsletter every issue, filled with exhibitions and calls for entries 5
ARTIST PROFILE
Mona Hessing, not titled, late 1960s, 124 x 145 cm, woven tapestry, wool. This piece hung in the Office
of Kolos and Bryant Architects, Sydney, during the 1960s. Photo courtesy of Shapiro Auctioneers.
Contemporary Tapestry in Lausanne. and returned to India again. She and construction method, Mona
In 1973, she exhibited at the National was excited to be there, and for would ad lib everything. She saw
Gallery of Victoria with ceramic the first time in her life identified working simply as an advantage and
artist Marea Gazzard in the ground- a genuine sense of belonging; she ultimately how she would work in
breaking exhibition Clay + Fibre which said it always felt like she was going the future. She felt that she learned
opened heated discussion over the home. Going to the more rural areas more from that one project in India,
boundaries between art and craft. interested Mona, because she could working with the limited materials
Works that Mona produced during watch people going about their and palette, than reading books or
this period were Circular Rug (1965), daily tasks in a natural, unaffected, her experiments back in Australia.
Vestment (1969), Nimbus (1969), Scoop unselfconscious way. She loved the She sourced materials from India,
(1972), and Trail (1975). creative activities that came from one of her favourites being hand-
After separating from Leonard, honest necessity: ’When they need spun tussah silk, which was difficult
Mona left Australia and travelled something, beautiful things happen’. to get. She liked to think that a leaf
around the world on a very limited Mona was commissioned by an or a twig embedded in the roughly
budget. She travelled to Mexico, Indian collector to make a large spun silk had come all the way from
Spain, Portugal, the UK, Crete and work and took the opportunity to India. Traditional materials like
finally India. Being in India was a learn about the materials, where wool, silk, jute and sisal were not the
great turning point in her life; Mona to find them, and how to work with only materials that Mona used and
stayed for six months and completed them in a different environment. almost anything she was drawn to
a large hanging for a collector, before She had no loom or equipment and had potential. She experimented with
returning to Australia. Two years had to work in a very uncomplicated synthetic fibres and unusual items
later she went back to India, working way. She nailed a piece of timber such as transparent tubing, rope,
on projects that would ultimately to the wall and with a tensioned sticks, old sheets, anything pliable
provide sufficient material for a one- warp, devised systems of working that she could manipulate. ’I use
person show in Sydney. In 1973, Mona in woven segments. Although materials that are available to me
was awarded a Churchill Fellowship knowing roughly a work’s size, shape, now… I may feel drawn to something
6 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

completely different at some time maximum out of the minimum … You Auditorium and was twenty-four
in the future … as I work, I allow the can do so much with one material, metres long, two-and-a-half metres
materials I’m using to dictate what one colour, one tone …. by simply high, and weighed over a quarter of
kind of pace they really want to adopt.’ manipulating it in different ways you a tonne. To enable it to be moved,
Mona didn’t consider anything a can get a million combinations, a lifted and hung, Mona chose to create
mistake, allowing things to happen, million beautiful changes happening it as a series of components to be
sitting back and reappraising, within that one thing.’ assembled like a large collage. As
keeping in touch with the work as Mona became increasingly it was to be hung in the space for a
a whole and not being distracted well known for her large works number of years, Mona thought both
by small sections. Sometimes she and received a number of major she and the viewers would tire of it
imagined what a work would look commissions. Her first commissioned and the feel of the space would also
like, only to find the finished piece tapestry was for the Wentworth change over time, so she wanted the
looked completely different. ’The Memorial Chapel in Vaucluse in work to be flexible. It was constructed
actual behaviour of the material is 1967; others included works for from individual rectangular pieces
the number one ingredient, whether the Menzies Hotel, Sydney (1969), which ranged from thirty centimetres
something wants to fall or whether the University of New South Wales to one metre wide. These were
something wants to sit out stiffly or (1971), the Australian Embassy in primarily woven in India from hand-
whether something has to be held Paris (1977), the Orange Civic Centre, spun Indian wool and a little silk. She
in…it’s telling you what it wants to do.’ NSW (1978) and the Sydney Masonic chose wool as it is sympathetic to
Mona loved colour but used it Centre (1979). dyeing, can resume its original shape
sparingly. She always dyed the Banner, the work that she after being folded, and can be easily
materials herself and often aimed produced for UNSW, took nine maintained. The work was assembled
to gain a striped, uneven effect. I’m months to complete. It was made in situ with Mona ad-libbing as she
very interested always of getting the for the large foyer of the Clancy hung so that the three layers could be
Mona Hessing, Vestment, 1969, 250 x 161.3 cm, tapestry, Mona Hessing, Nimbus, 1969, 360 x 188 x 13 cm, wool, jute, synthetic yarns, hand dyed with synthetic dyes.
wool, jute, sisal, rayon. National Gallery of Victoria, Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, object no. 87/1156. Photo courtesy of MAAS
Melbourne. Purchased 1970 (D11-1970). Photo courtesy of
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Mona Hessing, Scoop, 1972, 320 x 91 cm, wool and
cotton: woven and assembled. National Gallery of
ARTIST PROFILE
Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1973. 1973.278.1-11

Photo courtesy of NGA.
Mona Hessing, Not titled, 1972, dimensions variable, 208 x 200 cm installed, woven tapestry, Mona Hessing, Trail, 1975, 20 x 20 x 10 cm (plus tails), hand-spun and
twenty panels, natural wool and coir weft on a cotton warp. Private collection, Sydney. plied cotton, dyed jute yarn, dyed wool. In the collection of Ararat Gallery
Photo by Jenni Carter. TAMA. Photo by MDP Photography & Video, courtesy Ararat Gallery TAMA.

_____
BANNER IS A COMPLETELY
ABSTRACT PIECE; MONA
WAS MINDFUL THAT IT WAS
PART OF THE EXISTING
BUILDING, NOT AN OVERLY
DECORATIVE ADDITION,
SO NEEDED TO WORK
HARMONIOUSLY WITH THE
EXISTING ARCHITECTURAL
FEATURES.
_____
Mona Hessing, Banner, 1971, 245 x 2375 cm, wool,

silk. University of New South Wales Art Collection.
Commissioned in 1970 with funds from the U
Committee. UNSW photography by Richard Freeman.
Mona Hessing, A Light unto my Path, 1979, approx.

870 x 520 cm, hand-spun wool and silk, unspun wool,
raw jute and sisal. Commissioned by the United Grand
Lodge of New South Wales to hang in the Masonic
Centre, Sydney. Photo by Peter Varley.
ARTIST PROFILE
Mona Hessing, Songlines, 1995, 19 x 52 x 52 cm (plus tails), unspun raw jute and Mona Hessing, The Offering Series - Simple Gifts 1, 1995, 12 x 40 x 50 cm, part A of
dyed, glued, hand-spun silk. © The artist’s estate, Ararat Gallery TAMA and Ararat two plant fibre baskets. Donated to the Western Sydney University Art Collection from
Rural City Council. Photo Terence Bogue. the Estate of Mona Hessing, copyright courtesy of the Estate. Photo by Sally Tsoutas.
a growing, changing thing, and later silk, some unspun wool along with moved to Tuross Head on the NSW
rearranged into something else. ‘I raw jute and sisal. Natural colours South Coast in 1990 to care for her
have some notion of the feeling that predominate, with earthy shades mother, also named Mona, who was
I’d like to achieve, or the presence darker at the base becoming lighter an active member of her community.
that I’d like to create … but I never moving upwards. Apart from the She began working and exhibiting
work from a cartoon or drawing. This commanding views of the work more seriously again, producing
is why I always work alone, why I can’t from the floor of the foyer, the smaller works including: Songlines
have assistants, because half the adjacent spiral staircase provides a (1995), The Offering Series - Simple
time I don’t know what to tell them to series of interesting perspectives. Gifts 1 & 2 (1995), and The Offering
do. I don’t know myself until I’m doing The commissioned title comes Series - Celebration Bowl (1995). In
it. I ad lib everything always.’ from Psalm 119, verse 105 and is 2001, aged 68, Hessing died suddenly
Banner is a completely abstract interpreted by Mona as ‘man’s search of a brain haemorrhage and was
piece; Mona was mindful that it was for self-realisation’. survived by her partner of recent
part of the existing building, not Mona had a deep desire to years, Norman Sanders. In August
an overly decorative addition, so make. ’Making is the very basic 2001, a reserve next to her property
needed to work harmoniously with primitive desire to be involved in a Shimmering was named Mona
the existing architectural features. truly creative activity… the thrill of Reserve as a tribute to both Mona
Using what was for her an unusually creating a presence I always find and her mother.
bright palette, Mona, described it as quite astonishing.’ When asked
‘a swim of colour from side to side’. ‘Why Weaving?’, Mona replied: ‘It’s a Cathie Griffith with Julie Brennan.
In 2020, after months of cleaning, personality thing. I function best in
repairing and devising a new and an isolated situation. I like working All images of Mona Hessing’s
more practical hanging system, the alone. Weaving takes a lot of time and artworks are © Estate of Mona
enormous tapestry was reinstalled. It you have to be with yourself for long Hessing, used with permission of
is one of the few of Mona’s tapestries periods … I tend to be fairly quiet and I Norman Sanders and current owners
in Australia which is still hanging in do a lot of thinking while I’m working. of the artworks.
the space for which it was originally I listen to music and am quite active
designed. while I am weaving.’ Mona found Quotations by Mona Hessing from an
Another that remains in its original being in contact with and talking to a interview with Hazel de Berg in 1972.
location is A Light Unto My Path in the lot of people utterly exhausting. ’I’m Sound recording in the Hazel de Berg
Sydney Masonic Centre. It was made simply not a verbal person’, she said. collection at the National Library of
for the cavernous foyer and was ’I’ve somehow selected the occupation Australia. https://trove.nla.gov.au/
intended to serve both acoustic and which wears me least of all.’ work/18845857
decorative purposes. It comprises In later years, Mona moved to
four cylindrical woven shapes with rural NSW where she bred horses, Works by Mona Hessing will be
different lengths from five to seven participated in Landcare projects, and exhibited in the Know My Name
metres high and a diameter of up continued to make smaller weavings, exhibition at the National Gallery of
to one and a half metres. Materials including the Cycle Series One (1984), Australia Part 2 which opens late
consisted of hand-spun wool and her response to severe drought. She July 2021.

_____
TRADITIONAL MATERIALS LIKE WOOL, SILK, JUTE AND SISAL

WERE NOT THE ONLY MATERIALS THAT MONA USED AND
ALMOST ANYTHING SHE WAS DRAWN TO HAD POTENTIAL. SHE
EXPERIMENTED WITH SYNTHETIC FIBRES AND UNUSUAL ITEMS
SUCH AS TRANSPARENT TUBING, ROPE, STICKS, OLD SHEETS,
ANYTHING PLIABLE THAT SHE COULD MANIPULATE.
_____
Mona Hessing,
The Offering Series –
Celebration Bowl, 1995,
40 x 64 cm, recycled silk
fabric bowl. Western
Sydney University Art
Collection. Photo by
Sally Tsoutas.
SHIMMERING -
EXHIBITIONS
Julie Brennan
the Mona Hessing

tribute project
This is the story of how a gift of materials from
an artist’s estate gave birth to an exhibition
to honour her life and legacy. The fascinating
journey that ensued for the eight artists involved
is told by Julie Brennan with Cathie Griffith.
n 2005, the newly formed Eurobodalla Fibre and Textile
I Artist Group (EFTAG) held its first exhibition. It included

a tribute to the Australian fibre artist Mona Hessing, who
had moved to Tuross Head in 1990, and lived, worked and
exhibited in our region until her untimely death in 2001.
Fast forward 15 years… Since its inception, over 100
women have been part of EFTAG, which today has over
forty members at all stages of the arts practice journey,
all passionate about fibre and textile art. Based on the
southeast coast of NSW, EFTAG has established a reputation
for innovative and exciting work. The group provides
an environment for artistic growth that is supportive,
challenging, nurturing and inspiring.
The idea for Shimmering - the Mona Hessing Tribute project
arose after materials that had belonged to Mona Hessing
were donated to EFTAG in 2018. These included natural-
dyed braided sisal and hand-dyed, hand-spun wool with
silk slubs. A project-based group exhibition was suggested,
using these materials as inspiration. EFTAG member Lorna
Crane offered to project manage and donate her time to
workshop with the participants. ‘The primary aim was to
immerse the group in a more experiential and process
driven approach’, Lorna explained.
A visit to the collection of the National Gallery of Art
was arranged to view Mona’s work firsthand. ‘This meeting
gave us great insight into the scale of her work. We also
viewed documents, sketchbooks, photographs and slides
documenting her history.’ Another invaluable resource was
the Trove interview by Hazel de Berg from around 1972.
A number of workshops during 2019 and 2020 enabled
the group of eight artists to experiment with the materials.
‘Drawing inspiration from the life and artistic journey of
Mona Hessing, and incorporating her fibres, the artists
created works that spoke of their individual responses. It has
been an incredible journey for all involved.’
The exhibition was held at the Basil Sellers Exhibition
Centre (the Bas) in Moruya, NSW. Curator Elizabeth
McCrystal notes that ‘Shimmering … is the first full textile-
based exhibition to grace the walls of the Basil Sellers
Exhibition Centre. It has allowed our regional audience
to experience textiles in a new way, from the painterly
qualities made with thread and layered fabric, to suspended
sculptural structures. The strength of this exhibition lies in
its ability to expand preconceived notions of textile art…’

AUTHOR: Julie Brennan with Cathie Griffith
Julie Brennan,
Metamorphosis II - A Season
of Fire, 2020, 165 x 30 cm
(diameter), wool, silk, sisal,
jute and kozo bark, polyester
lining and filling. Photo by
Stephanie Simko.
Detail: photo by the artist.
Feltmaking is Julie Brennan’s passion. Metamorphosis I - Generation:

Regeneration (see back cover) began
She particularly loves sculptural by exploring the transformation to
felt, and enjoys incorporating other motherhood, symbolised by birth
textile-related techniques, as well itself, and ‘morphed’ to include
as recycled materials, into her contemplation of the coming
work. In this exhibition Julie has regeneration, or rebirth, of the
paid tribute to Mona’s passion for bush following the fire that burned
exploring a range of fibres, her through our property in January
rejection of rigid planning, and her 2020.’ Metamorphosis II - A Season
openness to allowing the materials of Fire explores the transformation
to guide the evolution of her work. of a whole community by a summer
Julie’s piece Dare to be Different of unprecedented bushfire activity.
uses a wide variety of fibres, The unrelenting march of the fire
textiles and techniques to highlight monster, and repeated evacuations,
the beauty of uniqueness and caused many people to re-evaluate
diversity, as she explores the issue what was important to them.
of female genital cosmetic surgery. The cocoon reflects the colours of
‘Mona has increased my the bush in the early weeks after
confidence in my own practice of the fires.
‘listening’ and responding to the
behaviour of the materials as a
juliebrennanfelt.com
piece evolves’, says Julie, ‘and to
@juliebrennanfelt
feel free to take a new direction’.
Julie Brennan, Dare to be Different (Detail

above), 2020, 104 x 120 x 4 cm, wool, silk, camel hair,
sisal, jute, nettle, kozo bark, mohair, cotton, leather
and various synthetics. Photo by Stephanie Simko.

Julie Armstrong
EXHIBITIONS
Julie Armstrong grew up within a

family of makers, and delights in
‘playing’, exploring, experimenting, and
combining techniques within a myriad
of mediums.
She incorporates fibre, textiles,

recycled and found objects into
her work, using techniques such
as stitch, felting, basket making,
photography, printing, paint, and
mixed media.
Mona’s life, her materials, voice,
and her connections to place and
cultures inspired Julie’s making
and her honouring of Mona in this
exhibition. She used earth tones,
sumptuous silks and natural fibres to
contrast and intertwine, reflecting on
interconnected pathways of life.
Each of Julie’s pieces has a story.
In the Sense of Place series of breast
plates, The Rising relates to Mona’s
rise as a textile artist of the 1960s
and 70s, whilst Gypsy Heart was Julie Armstrong, Gypsy Heart, Breastplate Julie Armstrong, The Rising (Sense of Place
in direct response to Julie’s own (Sense of Place series), 2020, 75 x 40 cm, series), 2020, 95 x 60 cm, sisal braid, cotton,
sisal braid, cotton, wool, wooden ring and wool, tie wire over cotton muslin weave tabard.
personal connection with Mona, with wire. Photo by Stephanie Simko Photo by Stephanie Simko.
whom she meditated and shared
a love of India, travels, and global
cultures. Her smaller pieces, a series
of five sets forming The Honour Julie Armstrong, Shimmering Light of Green Julie Armstrong, Shimmering Pure Light
Bowls series, are about interwoven and Gold (the Honour Bowls series), 2019-20, (The Honour Bowls series), 2020, dimensions
dimensions variable, satin, silk, cream pebbles. variable, vintage satin, silk. Photo by Julie Brennan.
connections to time and place and Photo by the artist.
the journey through life.
‘All were created as a personal
tribute to Mona, and to reflect
my own deep respect for cultural
connections to place. My work aims
to reflect the sacred, respectful and
natural aspects of interdependence,
connectivity, fluidity and movement
between all things’, says Julie.
@globalvillageemporium
@juliearmstrongstudio369
Julie Armstrong’s sketchbook. Photo by Lorna Crane.
14 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum

Alison Bogg, Terra Aestus, 2020, 61 x 122 cm, hemp and jute embellishment on dyed
linen. Photo courtesy of the Bas. Detail below: photo by Julie Brennan.
Alison
Bogg
Alison Bogg, Fortis et Liber, 2020, 223 x 45 cm, cotton rope, sisal, silk, silk
yarns (metal and wood frame). Photo by Julie Brennan.
Alison Bogg has worked in the performing arts in areas of

costume design, fabrication and art finishing, and enjoys
developing work that explores crossovers between wearable
art, costume design, sculpture and painting.
Reflecting on the connections made between artist,

artwork and audience is also important to her.
Exploring Mona’s textile forms, materials and colours
helped Alison map her own interpretation of Mona’s
life’s work. Three distinct elements spoke strongly to
her: materials, place and journey. Mona’s relationship to
the fibres she used was important to her work, and she
allowed them to guide the development of her works. She
had a strong sense of place and connection to the land
and her surroundings at her home Shimmering in Tuross.
Alison Bogg, Conduit, 2020, 61 x 153 cm, cotton embellishment on Indigo dyed linen.
The idea of journey was a persistent theme in Mona’s Photo by Stephanie Simko. Detail below: photo by Julie Brennan.
work: the mapping of her life, an ‘endless journeying of
the soul’ as she wove her pathway as an artist.
In responding to these elements, Alison’s artistic
exploration was inspired and guided by one of Mona’s
themes: Songlines — Dreaming tracks on land and water
— provide a memory record. Conduit is a contemplation
of the shimmering water of Tuross Lake where Mona
lived and worked. The water envelops the curves of the
lake edge and a Dreaming track above stitches its way
along the surface. Terra Aestus is a more emotional
response to the land, influenced by our recent experience
with bushfires. Lines became arched across a glowing
landscape to track the dynamic change, with dots as
moments stitched into the surface. Fortis et Liber (strong
and free) is inspired by the bold strength in Mona’s work
and her determination to yield to the pull of her artistic
endeavours and the materials she loved so much.
aliartisan.com
EXHIBITIONS
Lorna Crane, Fragile Earth series, 2020,

Lorna Crane cotton, silk, organza, tarlatan, jute, yarn, ink,
cotton threads, acrylic paint and oil pastels.
Photo Courtesy of the Bas.
Painting, printmaking, and textiles

have been a part of Lorna Crane’s life
as an artist for many years.
‘Fibre for me has that intrinsic

connection to the human condition
and the environment’, says Lorna.
‘It holds memories that touch the
soul but also there is the tactile,
textural quality … My landscape-
inspired works are process driven
and speak about ‘place and identity’
with a strong connection to my local
environment.’
Lorna’s Fragile Earth series
chronicles a period of lockdown
during the megafire season, the
impact it had on the environment
and the wave of emotions that was
deeply felt during the eight-week
period. Working with earth tones in
a raw and rudimentary approach,
this narrative explores times of
lightness and of darkness then cut Lorna Crane, The Petites, set 3: Fireballs, 2020, Lorna Crane, Fragile Earth III - Limbo Land, 2020,
and reshaped as a type of memory various sizes from 1.5 x 2 cm, hand-dyed and natural sisal 50 x 70 cm, cotton, silk, organza, tarlatan, jute, yarn,
plus raw silk, tarlatan and yarn (Mona Hessing donated ink, cotton threads, acrylic paint and oil pastels. Photo
mapping, as a record ‘of this time materials), with cotton thread. Photo by Cathie Griffith. by Julie Brennan.
and place’.
The Petites are a series of
twenty-one hand-coiled vessels
represented as containers of
hope and courage using Hessing’s
donated materials. ‘It was the
Mona Hessing Trove interview by
Hazel de Berg (circa1972) where
Mona’s words resonated with me’,
says Lorna, ‘how out of isolation
you reflect on your past and
move forward with huge learning
curves. Also, there was always that
instinctual need for her as an artist
to make and shape as an honest
activity; by “letting the materials
speak” the work evolves over a
period as the essential part of the
creative process.’
lornacrane.com
@lornacraneart
@fibreworkspambula
Facebook: Lorna Crane and
Lorna Crane Artist Lorna Crane, Fragile Earth I - Deliverance (detail), 2020, 92 x 303 cm, cotton, silk, organza, tarlatan, jute, yarn,
ink, cotton threads, acrylic paint and oil pastels. Photo by Cathie Griffith.

Cathie Griffith, A Notion of the Feeling (details),
2020, fabrics, papers, threads, fibres, natural dyes,
metal rings, eyelets. Photos by Stephanie Simko (top)
and Julie Brennan (middle and bottom).
Cathie Griffith, Rhythms Repeating, 2020, 140 x 62 x 15 cm, rusted Rio mesh, timber base, fabrics, fibres,
threads, natural dyes, metal rings, sticks. Photo courtesy of the Bas.
Cathie Griffith
Cathie Griffith, a fibre and mixed media artist, sees herself primarily as a storyteller.
‘My art practice focuses on my experiences as I interact with the world, the
people I meet and their stories’. A dedicated recycler of materials, she sees
value in cast-off objects, which often become an integral part of her artworks.
For this exhibition Cathie chose to make works which she hoped would reflect Cathie Griffith, Rhythms Repeating (detail), 2020,
both Mona’s creative philosophy and methods. Photo by Julie Brennan.
A Notion of the Feeling is a collection of books created using hand-dyed fabrics

and papers, threads, fibres, and metal rings. Mona used very little equipment
and made her works in a simple manner, allowing her materials to dictate form
and direction. She spoke of having some notion of the feeling that she would
like to achieve, or the presence that she would like to create. ‘I have constructed
these books’, Cathie says, ‘allowing the materials with their limited colours to
dictate the direction they wanted to take. My desire was to create an atmosphere
of quiet creativity and Mona working alone in her studio at Shimmering.’
Mona often constructed her works in pieces. She collaged these pieces
together into larger works, often rearranging and changing the work, which
was a growing and moving thing. Mona worked with a limited earthy palette
and modular units assembled together, resounding with rhythms repeating
throughout her larger works. In Rhythms Repeating Cathie emulates Mona’s
use of modular units, earthy colours, and a combination of textures, colours,
and rhythms. She uses rusted reinforcing mesh and fibres and threads that she
stitched, dyed, knitted, wove, and/or felted.
Cathie Griffith’s sketchbook with early stages of

@cathie.griffith Rhythms Repeating. Photo by Lorna Crane.
Save now and subscribe! www.artwearpublications.com.au 17

EXHIBITIONS
Roslyn
Holmes
Details of Transference: photos by (top

to bottom) Lorna Crane, Cathie Griffith,
Roslyn Holmes. Pages of Roslyn Holmes’
sketchbook, photo by Lorna Crane.
Roslyn Holmes, Transference, 600 x 200 x 150 cm (variable), sisal, rope, seeds and grass. Photo by Stephanie Simko.
Roslyn Holmes has immersed herself group of five connected hanging just experienced.’ Mona’s work is
in her own practice after a career as a sculptures emerging from Mona architectural and the relationship to
Visual Arts secondary school teacher. Hessing’s unravelled sisal rope. the space around it is very important.
Gathered seeds and grasses are To honour Mona, Roslyn’s rope
Her focus is sculptural weaving caught in the fine layers of fibre. starts at the ceiling, becoming the
with plant materials; she also Roslyn’s inspiration for this piece protective and transparent cocoons
uses tarlatan cloth and etchings was Mona’s determination to ‘… that have collected grass, seeds,
on rag paper from her print studio, allow things to happen…’. ‘I chose feathers and singed leaves from
feathers, linen rope, beach plastic, to work with Mona’s natural sisal the hill on her property. The forms
driftwood, seed pods, shells, wire nine-strand plaited rope and have are related to each other and are
from multicore telephone cable, and come to love this strong and resilient connected to the space with the rope
discarded electrical cords. Roslyn material which when deconstructed falling to the floor.
works intuitively, using the landscape to individual fibres becomes very
for inspiration, exploring memory, fragile… It encapsulates raw feelings
identity and a sense of place. of threat, exposure and the unknown,
@roslynholmes_artist
Her work Transference is a a reflection of the horrific summer

Stephanie Simko
Stephanie Simko explores new

ideas and different materials
through a variety of techniques
including felting, lino print,
collage, stitch, drawing and
painting.
Stephanie’s background in
interior design influences
both her textile and sculptural
work through the exploration
and juxtaposition of form,
light, colour and space. Her
inspiration includes the natural
and urban environment and
her love of travel. Inspired by
Mona Hessing’s description of
her life and work as an interior
designer and weaver in the 1972
interview with Hazel de Berg,
Stephanie decided to explore
and experiment with some
of the ideas discussed. This
included: using a limited palette
of materials; using minimal
equipment; undertaking her own
dyeing; using tones of a single
colour; and incorporating some
fibre from Mona’s collection.
‘Mona acknowledged that
she was an introvert with a rich
inner life; she enjoyed working
alone and found being in contact
with people exhausting. The
_____ artwork’s larger timber frame
represents her private life and
THE STITCHING OF HER FIBRES ON THE the smaller one her public life
FELT MARKS LIFE’S JOURNEY: A THREAD and can be seen as windows
to both her studio and to life.
WITH STARTS AND STOPS, TWISTS AND The felt band weaves these two
TURNS, BUT WHICH FLOWS. realms together. The stitching of
_____ her fibres on the felt marks life’s
journey: a thread with starts
and stops, twists and turns, but
which flows. The use of spotted
gum leaves for dyeing and the
timber frame pay homage to the
tree beside her studio.’
@steph.simko
Stephanie Simko, Inside Out, 2020,

120 x 60 x 30 cm, felted wool, hand dyed
using spotted gum leaves, spotted gum
frame. Photo by the artist.
Mischi West
EXHIBITIONS
Mischi West is a founding member

of EFTAG. She has been a spinner,
weaver and knitter for over fifty
years. Her love of and fascination
with textiles started at a very young
age, when women of her village in
Bavaria would rip up old clothes to
turn them into colourful floor rugs.
Her passion for textiles has evolved to
include indigo and shibori dyeing, eco
printing, needle felting, felting, textile
piecing, and textile sculpture.
The two knitted works in this
exhibition are derived from and guided
by Mona’s sense of space and Mischi’s
own sense for colour and texture.
‘Mona often created works inspired
by and fitted to architectural spaces.
Mischi West, Gatherings (detail), while considering options for hanging arrangement. Photo by Lorna Crane.
In these works, I have been drawn Hand-dyed wool used for Homage and Gatherings. Photo by the artist.
to that holistic approach of creating
textile pieces that fit human- built environments. Whilst Mona’s work as Mona’s work often was. ‘It includes
is mainly woven, my strength is in some of Mona’s colours as reference
knitting, felting and dyeing.’ points and some of her hand-spun
Homage is a huge suspended fibre from her time in India; but it
knitted sculpture made of hand-dyed is mainly a combination of my own
wool. ‘It took seven months to create style of textile art, and symbolises
and I have let it grow as it guided me’, the gathering of women creating this
says Mischi. It relates to Mona’s work exhibition.’
that often touches the ground, and
also includes spun and un-spun fibre.
@turossfibreart
Gathering is created in components,
Mischi West, Homage, 2020, 380 x 60 cm, hand-

dyed wool, Mona’s yarn and sisal, metal hoop, metal
ring. Photo courtesy of Belco Arts.
If you’re curious to see more, you might like

to visit https://thebas.com.au/exhibitions/
shimmering-the-mona-hessing-tribute-
project/ where the exhibition was first shown in
July 2020. It later travelled to Belconnen Arts
Centre (Oct 31st 2020 till Jan 31st 2021).
Mischi West, Gatherings, 2020, 180 x 220 cm, pure hand-dyed
Julie Brennan with Cathie Griffith wool, hand-spun yarn, sisal. Photo by Stephanie Simko.

AUTHOR: Jane Ingram Allen
Living
FEATURE
Quilts
Jane Ingram Allen is an artist
who makes transformational,
outdoor, public fibre art
installations using handmade
paper and seeds. She calls
them ‘living quilts’ because
the handmade paper quilts
have seeds embedded in the
pulp which germinate and
grow to create a living artwork
that changes over time.
Living Quilt for Sojourner Truth, 2020, design for

installation.
Jane Ingram Allen installing Living Quilt for

Sojourner Truth at Sojourner Truth Community
Garden, Sacramento, California in November 2020.
M
y living quilts are made original paper quilt. After the blooms of WEAD: Women Eco Artists Dialog
of handmade paper in a disappear and the flowers have made an international network of ‘feminist
colourful graphic design, seed, it goes to sleep and waits to eco artists, educators, curators,
sometimes based on a traditional quilt reawaken the next spring. The living and writers who are concerned with
pattern, and connected uniquely to quilts can continue for many seasons making, displaying and sharing their
the place and time of the installation. and depend on nature and humans. views on ecological and social justice
The living quilt is beautiful in all its Watching this artwork over time helps art’ (https://directory.weadartists.
phases of transformation. With rain us appreciate the natural cycle of org). I was selected as the first WEAD
or watering and time, the paper life and understand the importance artist-in-residence to undertake a
pulp begins to dissolve into mulch of weather, water, soil conditions, public art project with the Lancaster
to nourish the earth, and the seeds and human interactions. We cannot Museum of Art and History.
start to sprout. Initially, the seedlings control nature, but we can work with During a three-week residency
are different shades of green with nature as partner and co-creator. in February-March 2016, I created
unique leafy textures, but eventually My living quilts began in 2016 Lancaster Eco-Quilt during open
they bloom as wildflowers in the with an artist-in-residency project in studio sessions and workshops at
same colours and pattern of the Lancaster, California. I am a member the Museum’s Cedar Art Center in
FEATURE
Lancaster Eco Quilt, 2016, volunteers helping with

the installation of the quilt.
Lancaster Eco Quilt, 2016, 8 x 10 x 5 feet, handmade

paper, dye, seeds, string, branches, boards, soil, installed
at Hull Park, Lancaster, California, 13 March 2016
_____
EVENTUALLY THEY BLOOM

AS WILDFLOWERS IN
THE SAME COLOURS
AND PATTERN OF THE
ORIGINAL PAPER QUILT.
AFTER THE BLOOMS
DISAPPEAR AND THE
FLOWERS HAVE MADE
SEED, IT GOES TO SLEEP
AND WAITS TO REAWAKEN
THE NEXT SPRING.
_____
Living Quilt for Newnan, 2017. Blooming on 16 May
2019. Photo by Bette Hickman.
downtown Lancaster. The handmade city park in Lancaster, California. I quilt design was in red, yellow, blue
paper quilt featured California golden made a raised bed about eight feet and white with seeds for wildflowers
poppies on a blue background with by ten feet using wooden boards and in colours to match the paper pulp.
white borders, since this area is wove a headboard and footboard for Many local people helped to make
famous for fields of golden poppies the flower bed with local, trimmed the blocks for Living Quilt for Newnan,
in the early spring. For the golden branches. The headboard, footboard and I worked with local master
colour in the quilt I used abaca pulp and raised bed can remain in place gardeners to build the raised bed and
and dyed it with a non-toxic fibre for years until they too dissolve as make the headboard and footboard
reactive dye. I used cotton blue jeans’ compost. The transformative process of local branches. Living Quilt for
pulp for the blue colour, and natural from installation to flowers takes Newnan was installed in a city park
white abaca pulp for the borders. about two to three months, and the at a dedication ceremony on August
Seeds for California poppies were in flowers usually reseed and come 30, 2017. After I left the residency,
the gold coloured pulp, and seeds for back in subsequent years. local people continued to take photos
California bluebells in the blue pulp. I created another living quilt of its progress. The handmade paper
The off-white abaca pulp contained installation in Newnan, Georgia, dissolved into mulch, and the seeds
seeds for Baby’s Breath wildflowers. in August 2017, as an artist-in- produced some flowers in October
Stencils for the quilt design were residence at Newnan Art Rez (www. and November 2017. I also received
made with Buttercut stencil material newnanartist.org). For this living a photo showing the Living Quilt for
that were adhered to my regular quilt I chose a house motif based Newnan blooming like crazy in May
8.5 x 11-inch papermaking molds. on a traditional Southern mansion, 2018, after its first winter. It has also
The finished quilt was installed since Newnan is known for its many returned with new blooms in 2019
with community participation at a beautiful antebellum homes. The and 2020.

Living Quilt for Newnan, 2017, 8 feet x 10 feet x

5 feet, handmade paper, dye, seeds, string, branches,
boards, soil. Installed at Children’s Museum Park,
Newnan, Georgia, on 30 August 2017.
Another of my living quilts, October and November. Flying geese showing Living Quilt for Santa Rosa
titled Living Quilt for Santa Rosa, also symbolise being able to escape changing over time. It continues to
FEATURE
was installed in November 2018 at from disasters and migrate to a new bloom each Spring.
Rincon Ridge Park in Santa Rosa, place with the seasons. The quilt is In Spring 2019, I created a living
California. This project was funded by formed in strips with blue geese on quilt art project titled Guns into
a grant from the City of Santa Rosa. a white background and borders of Flowers in Sacramento, California. I
Artists were invited to respond to the orange pulp. The blue colour for the worked with high school art students
devastating October 2017 wildfires geese in the quilt is paper pulp made from Natomas Charter School,
that cost lives and destroyed many from recycled blue jeans, and the and we installed the living quilt on
homes in Santa Rosa. My artwork off-white sky is the natural colour March 16, 2019, in a park near South
celebrates the healing powers of abaca pulp. The orange for the Natomas Community Center. This
of nature and the beauty of life borders is abaca pulp that I dyed project focused on gun violence and
coming back after disasters such as with a non-toxic fibre reactive dye. was conceived following several
wildfires. Living Quilt for Santa Rosa Each colour of pulp contains seeds of tragic mass shootings at schools in
uses the traditional Flying Geese local wildflowers in the same colour. the US. The intention was to raise
quilt pattern, since flying geese are This link (https://www.youtube.com/ awareness and initiate dialogue
common sights in the skies during watch?v=6rfH104j92o) has photos about gun violence in a vivid way by
Living Quilt for Santa Rosa, 2018, 8 x 10 x 6 feet, handmade paper, dye, seeds, string, branches, boards, soil. Finished installation at Rincon Ridge Park,
Santa Rosa, California, on 25 November 2018.

Guns into Flowers, 2019, 8 x 10 x 6 feet, handmade paper, dye, seeds, string, branches, boards, soil, installed at South Natomas Community Center Park, Sacramento,
California on 16 March 2019.
Living Quilt for Sojourner Truth, 2020, design for installation to be completed in November 2020 at Sojourner Truth Community Garden, Sacramento, California. The
finished work will be 8 x 10 x 5 feet, handmade paper, dye, seeds, string, branches, boards, soil.
transforming handmade paper guns Sacramento’s new Artist-in- direct escaping slaves northward to
into living flowers. My living quilt for Residency Program (https://arts. freedom. Like the other living quilts,
Guns into Flowers had a motif of guns cityofsacramento.org/Programs/ Living Quilt for Sojourner Truth will
made from paper pulp containing Sacramento-AIR). Living Quilt for also remind us of nature’s cycle of life
seeds of local wildflowers which Sojourner Truth commemorates and our responsibility as caretakers
bloomed in early summer 2019 and the legacy of this former slave of the earth.
again in Spring 2020. who was a famous abolitionist and
My living quilt series continued spokesperson for women’s suffrage. Jane Ingram Allen
in November 2020 with a public For this installation I used the https://janeingramallen.wordpress.com
art installation at Sojourner Truth traditional North Star quilt pattern. All photos by Timothy S. Allen
Community Garden in Sacramento, Some historians say that North (unless noted in caption)
California as part of the City of Star quilts were used as signs to http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com
We sell
colour,
so you can
be creative.
AUTHOR: Moira Simpson
EXHIBITIONS
WAR & PIECED

War and Pieced was the clever title of an exhibition of quilts made from
Australia
military fabrics, displayed at The David Roche Foundation, Adelaide, from 10th
September to 19th December 2020. The quilts in the exhibition are from the
collection of Dr. Annette Gero, one of Australia’s leading quilt historians, who
has been collecting and documenting quilts since 1982.
Beaded soldiers’ quilt, 1860–70, India, 160 x 160 cm, military uniform wool, beading, all hand-sewn.
Photo by The David Roche Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
EXHIBITIONS
Installation shot showing on left: Woollen signature quilt, 1892, England or Canada, 132 x 132 cm, wool, hand-sewn, no back, hand-embroidered. Centre: Aunt Julia’s quilt,
mid- to late 19th century, Moravia (now Czech Republic), 204 x 169 cm, woolen uniform fabric from dress uniforms. Right: World War Two Red Cross quilt, c.1943, United
States of America, 261 x 200cm, cotton, machine pieced, hand quilted. Photo by The David Roche Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
O
ne might expect that quilts an extraordinary collection of quilts, were some quilts that one might
made from military uniforms many displaying sophisticated and expect to see in an exhibition
would be limited in colour; intricate patterns and designs, of military quilts. There was an
that the thickness of wool fabrics highly skilled work including orange and cream signature quilt
would impede the creation of finely intricately pieced construction from Canada with flower motifs
pieced, intricate designs; and that and embellishments of raised outlined in stitching and a signature
the skills of the makers would be appliqué, fine beadwork, or delicate embroidered on each of the 384
limited so the design and fabrication embroidery, and an unlimited palette, petals. A World War Two Red Cross
would be rudimentary; however, reflecting the diversity of colours of quilt from the USA comprised red
as this exhibition dramatically uniforms from past centuries and crosses against a white background.
illustrated, such assumptions would different countries. Both of these are types of quilts made
be wrong. War and Pieced presented Amongst this diverse collection, to raise funds.

Lucy Carroll, Soldier On, 2013, 100 x 180 cm, Queensland. Cotton, silk, tulle, wool, assorted threads, Quilt with cigarette silks, c.1920, England, 25 x 147 cm, silk
Swarovski beads, hand dyed, machine pieced, free motion quilted. Photo by The David Roche Foundation with cotton back, hand-stitched. Photo by The David Roche
courtesy of Annette Gero. Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
There were quilts that displayed Aunt Julia’s quilt is believed to have demonstrated an alternative
a subtle beauty while others dazzled been made in Moravia (now part of source of fabric: cigarette silks,
the eye, such as a military quilt the Czech Republic) and date from each displaying a different motif or
made in Germany in the nineteenth the mid- to late-nineteenth century. portrait of a World War One Allied
century constructed from 9600 tiny However, the rich and harmonious leader, including Lord Kitchener,
red and white squares. Many other palette of predominantly blues, King George V, Emperor Nicholas
quilts, however, surprised me greatly pinks and crimsons — which match II of Russia, and the Greek prime
in terms of design, materials and European dress uniforms of the minister, M Venizelos.
workmanship and challenged my time — imbued it with a sense of Several quilts were based on a
preconceptions of military quilts. For modernity, as if influenced by the Op medallion or framed composition
the purposes of this review, I have Art movement. (i.e. composed of multiple centred
selected nine personal favourites. A quilt made around 1920 squares), some of them dazzling in
EXHIBITIONS
Soldier’s patchwork with incredible border

(Crimean War), c.1855, 208 x 216 cm, England,
felted wools taken from uniforms of the 37th Foot
Regiment, all hand-sewn, beadwork, textured
layered appliquéd border. Photo by The David
Roche Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
War and Pieced installation at the David Roche
Foundation in 2020. Photo by The David Roche
Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
Detail of Soldier’s patchwork with incredible
border, photo by Moira Simpson.
the complexity of their piecing. One of Wales plumes at the corners cuirassiers, in white uniforms;
of these, a beaded soldiers’ quilt of the second inner square, all of military musicians playing trumpet,
made in India and dated to 1860-70, these heavily beaded. The border French horn, violin, cello, flute,
featured a central panel with motifs was indeed incredible: dimensional bassoon and clarinet; court jesters,
outlined with beads each sewn on appliqué, comprising as many as and folk in civilian clothing.
individually to a tiny circle of fabric, seven layers of tiny fabric pieces, Another was a mid-Victorian
while the outer sections were filled formed a linear pattern around regimental bed rug featuring
with intricate patterns of squares, the edge of the quilt, interspersed exquisite embroidery in three central
rectangles and triangles. with motifs of hearts, diamonds embroidered panels. It was made
One of the most dramatic was and flowers. This large and vibrant by Sgt. Malcolm Macleod while in
a large ‘soldier’s patchwork with quilt was displayed on an almost- India with the 72nd Regiment (Duke
incredible border’, made during the horizontal plinth in the centre of the of Albany’s Own Highlanders). At
Crimean War. Every section of the second gallery forming a physical and the top, the figure of a Royal Navy
medallion design was filled with lively visual centre point of the exhibition. sailor waves his hat, with a fouled
patterns composed of hundreds of Three quilts caught my eye due to anchor and tar barrel to his left.
tiny pieced squares of wool fabric their particularly charming depictions The bottom panel showed a Royal
in a bold colour scheme of red, of human figures and wildlife. One Navy ship on a blue sea and below
yellow, blue, green, black and white, of these, a late eighteenth-century this is a horizontal panel with
the regimental colours of the 37th Prussian intarsia quilt, had rows embroidered foliage and flowers
Foot Regiment, creating a dazzling of figures top and bottom: soldiers including a Scottish thistle. In the
effect. In the centre square were including musketeers of a Prussian centre were two panels, showing the
two crossed flags, the regimental infantry regiment, wearing red, maker’s name, rank, the regiment’s
emblem, with crowns and Prince blue and white uniforms; Prussian colours and where the regiment was

stationed. These were surrounded appliquéd and embroidered raised- embroidered flowers. Surrounding
by three rectangular borders: two work flowers, so detailed that they this were sections composed of
with a lively pattern of small diamond are recognisable as pansies, daisies, pieced square tiles, each decorated
patches, and between these, a yellow briar roses, primulas, forget-me- with a different flowering plant,
border beautifully embroidered with knots, and thistles, the latter perhaps including strawberries, daisies, lily
flowing foliage, urns of flowers, hinting at the quilt’s probable Scottish of the valley, jasmine and primulas.
and two of the black ostrich feather origins. With careful examination, The deep magenta inner border
bonnets which were part of the I also spotted a few satin-stitched was appliquéd with golden fruiting
regimental uniform. The embroidery butterflies fluttering amongst the vines; the outer border was a green
was very skilfully executed and, after blossoms. fabric decorated with baskets and
his return to Scotland, Sgt. Macleod’s Polly’s quilt, an English intarsia cornucopias of flowers, acorn trees
quilt won a medal in the Glasgow coverlet designed for a four-poster with blackbirds, and embroidered
Industrial Exhibition of 1865–66, no bed, was also embellished with golden pheasants.
doubt in no small part due to the fine an abundance of appliquéd and A particularly elegant quilt was
stitching. embroidered flowers, worked on The Intellect and Valour of Great
Other quilts were astonishing due fabrics in a beautiful colour palette Britain attributed to Michael Zumpf, a
to the sensitivity of design, botanical - predominantly pinks, reds, greens, tailor, whose skill with a needle was
detail or skilful embroidery. A mid- and teal. In a circle at the centre abundantly clear. An outer border
nineteenth century military or tailor’s of the medallion design, was a comprised hand stitched, twining
patchwork quilt was adorned with cornucopia containing layered and tendrils from which sprouted leaves
Intarsia with soldiers, Prussia, 1760–80, 140 x 110 cm, wool, probably from A mid-Victorian regimental bed rug by Sgt. Malcolm Macleod made before 1865
uniforms, all hand-sewn, intarsia. Photo by The David Roche Foundation courtesy of in India, (active 1860–65), 242 x 160 cm. Wool, mostly uniform fabrics, inlaid, with
Annette Gero. Details below: Photos by Moira Simpson, courtesy of Annette Gero and embroidery, all hand-sewn and embroidered. Exhibited and awarded a medal in the
The David Roche Foundation. Glasgow Exhibition 1865–66. Photo by The David Roche Foundation courtesy of
Annette Gero. Details below: photos by Moira Simpson, courtesy of Annette Gero and
The David Roche Foundation.
EXHIBITIONS
A fine military or tailor’s patchwork with thistles, c.1850–60, possibly Scotland, 217 x 197 cm, scarlet Melton wool, uniform fabrics,
inlaid, hand appliquéd, embroidered. Photo by The David Roche Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
Details showing appliquéd and embroidered raised-work flowers.

Photos by Moira Simpson, courtesy of Annette Gero and The David Roche Foundation.
English intarsia for four poster bed (Polly’s quilt), 1825–30, England,
239 x 272 cm, wool, probably from uniforms, all hand-sewn, intarsia.
Photo by The David Roche Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
and flowers in various colours of appliqué

fabrics with stitched detailing. An inner border
has, in each corner, a cornucopia filled with
flowers. Worked in a bright silk threads on black
fabric, these borders provided a beautiful frame
for a central panel filled with a large gathering
of figures, in the plush interior of the House of
Commons. The composition was taken from
an 1863 wood engraving by Charles George
Lewis (1808-1880), which is itself a reproduction
of a painting by the English artist, Thomas
Jones Barker (1815–1882). All the figures have
been identified. They are high ranking military
officers, politicians and intellectual luminaries
of the scientific and literary spheres, including:
General Sir James Outram, Field Marshal Lord
Clyde, General Sir Henry Havelock, Gladstone,
Palmerston, Disraeli, Faraday, Sir David
Brewster, Sir William Armstrong, Sir David
Livingston, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Charles
Darwin. Using fine inlaid work and embroidery,
the stitched figures are still recognisable.
The exhibition concluded with a modern
quilt, Soldier On, by Queensland textile artist
Lucy Carroll. The composition shows the Roll
of Honour at the Australian War Memorial,
Canberra, where visitors attach poppies, the
symbol of remembrance. At the far end where
a sculpture stands, the artist has stitched the
figures of two modern-day soldiers — one
assisting a wounded colleague — which is
adapted (with permission) from the logo of
Soldier On, a charity founded by soldiers to help
other wounded soldiers. The foreshortening
has allowed the artist to depict the expansive
wall of names and poppies, while working those
in the immediate foreground as large, three-
dimensional flowers made from vibrant red
quilted silk, with black tulle and bead centres.
The quilts were beautifully displayed in
three adjoining galleries of The David Roche
Foundation (10 Sept - 19 Dec 2020), along
with militaria, several pieces of furniture and
some paintings and reproductions relevant to
the histories of specific quilts. The walls were
painted black, the lighting was low, emitting
from crystal chandeliers, with additional
spotlighting illuminating each quilt. The detail of
the quilts could only be seen and appreciated by
close inspection and it was extremely gratifying
that the exhibition had been installed by the
gallery director, Robert Reason, and curator,
Nathan Schroeder, with no barriers to close
viewing. I spent two hours examining the quilts
Details of English intarsia for four poster bed (Polly’s quilt),

1825–30, England. Photo by Moira Simpson, courtesy of Annette
Gero and The David Roche Foundation.
EXHIBITIONS
Attributed to Michael Zumpf (Britain-Hungary active 1870s), tailor, The Intellect

and Valour of Great Britain quilt, c.1870s, London. 190 x 215 cm, wool from Victorian
military and naval dress jackets, silk embroidery thread. Photo by The David Roche
Foundation courtesy of Annette Gero.
Detail of The Intellect and Valour of Great Britain quilt, c.1870s, London. Sir William
Armstrong explains the construction of his cannon to a group including (l to r) General
Sir Hope Grant, General Sir Archdale Wilson, Sir William Armstrong, Sir Benjamin
Brodie (seated), Gen Sir John Inglis (seated), Field Marshal Lord Clyde (seated on right),
Standing on the right are: l to r: William Makepeace Thackeray, Robert Stephenson,
C.E., and Field Marshal Lord Gough. Photo by Moira Simpson, courtesy of Annette Gero
and The David Roche Foundation.
with great care, returning to each more than once, and on

each viewing finding tiny details that I had previously missed.
I was deeply impressed by the exhibition and gained a new
appreciation of quilts made from military fabrics and, in
particular, the diversity, virtuosity, and beauty that was
displayed. I left feeling privileged to have had the opportunity
to see this illuminating exhibition in the beautiful setting of
The David Roche Foundation House Museum.
Moira Simpson
www.evocativearts.com.au
A 240-page publication Wartime Quilts: Appliqués and

Geometric Masterpieces from Military Fabrics (The Beagle
Press, 2015) accompanied the exhibition.
The New York Times reviewed the book as one of the ten best
art and design books of 2017. Copies are still available from Detail of The Intellect and Valour of Great Britain quilt, c.1870s, London.
Annette Gero at: www.annettegero.com Photo by Moira Simpson, courtesy of Annette Gero and The David Roche Foundation.

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Nancy Ballesteros Pam de Groot
Subscribe via www.artwearpublications.com.au
AUTHOR: Jane Skeer
ARTIST PROFILE
Complexity Theory, 2018, 182 x 182 x 39 cm (each unit), discarded Artlink magazines, mass-produced IKEA bookshelves. Photographer: Grant Hancock.
CHANCE Australia
ENCOUNTERS
Passionate, with a hunger to participate in everything a creative life
has to offer, I explore the everyday and everyday people while observing
what is going on around me in this world. I turn up to work each day
creating a space for conversation and inviting in curiosity. I make art as
a necessity to find out what life is about. I make art for myself; if I am
happy with it then I will choose to share it.
live and work on Kaurna land. I our past histories. I am fascinated medium to explain this curiosity to
I predominately work in sculpture

and installation, creating work
in response to my observations of
with materials that come from the
landscape; that wear the landscape
embedded in their surface. I find
the wider audience.
I source materials that wear the
imprint of their passage and mimic
people, objects, and materiality. myself constantly drawn to regional the essence and muted palette of
I re-present familiar ready- Australia, emotively responding to my their journeys. I spend time outside
made objects imbued with their lived experiences. observing the environment, listening
associated sensory/haptic memories, Materials and their histories are to local communities, visiting sites,
highlighting the vitality I see in them. integral to my art practice. While at and searching for materials that have
A physical process of assembling art school, I decided that we already been heavily affected by the harsh
materials en-masse allows me have too much stuff in the world and climatic conditions. I work making
the time and space to inhabit, I made a conscious decision to work simple repetitive gestures, elevating
contemplate and work collaboratively with found, discarded objects from the small moments I capture and am
with the material. our times. Everything is an object for continuously ambitious, focused on
I primarily work site specifically, my consumption. I experience the creating something grand, sensorially
building installations experientially world through being curious and I stimulating, that will provoke a sense
that modify space and comment on work playfully with the appropriate of surprise and wonder.

True Blue, 2020, 300 x 1000 x 150 cm, used rachet tie downs bought from Bunbury, Albany, Whyalla, Freeling, Alice Springs, Mount Gambier,
Millicent, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Photographer: Grant Hancock.
My artworks tend to grow in imprint of their passage and mimic particular material Skeer starts
complexity through the dynamic the essence and muted palette obsessively stockpiling, salvaging
of group participation, allowing of the Australian landscape. My the unwanted and befriending
for large-scale immersive art aim is to monumentalise them, unlikely allies with her singular
installations. Presently, I am retire them from their duties, to focus. This intense period is the
exploring methods and materials recognise their efforts. This work unseen labour that imbues Skeer’s
that narrate a more emotive highlights the vitality I see in them, work with a sense of storytelling”.
experience, projecting new energy rendering visible the mechanisms I work collaboratively with
into my art practice. For example, of trade, the importance of the familiar, ready-made objects that
I am constantly purchasing truck trucking industry, which define the I find during my daily activities.
rachet tie downs covered in dirt country’s economy. This ad hoc method of art making
and grease, loaded with history In an essay by Serena Wong for allows my practice to travel
which I seek from Australia-wide the Walkway Gallery, Bordertown, anywhere in the world and allows
sources through eBay, Gumtree Wong noted; “Jane Skeer inhabits participation by artists and non-
and Grays Online. With these, it a work as she makes it. Never on artists and people of all abilities.
is my intention to immerse the the outside looking in, Skeer is I thrive on creating work publicly:
viewer in a large-scale painting embedded in her work through I visualise my art practice as an
reminiscent of the work of German flashes of autobiographic detail, open book, and work interactively
artist, Katharina Grosse. uncanny intuition and the physical in its making. When the audience
Rachet tie downs are strong process of assembling material en- enters my workplace, they activate
and robust, industrially sewn to masse”. the space, changing the directions
secure their prized cargo, yet also “Frequently enthralled by chance the work might travel in. I enjoy
vulnerable, susceptible to the encounters with offcuts, surplus, watching audiences engage with
harsh elements. Embedded with over-production and excess-of, the my art practice. My artworks tend
red dirt and grease, worn down, seemingly mundane, Skeer goes to grow in complexity through the
exposing their histories, these tie to great lengths sourcing unusual dynamic of group participation,
downs evoke the endlessness of materials for her ever-expanding allowing for large-scale immersive
the open highway. They wear the installations. Once drawn to a art installations.
ARTIST PROFILE
On the Horizon, 2019, 300 x 120 cm, rachet tie downs sourced from the roadside on a recent trip along the Western Australian coastline. Photographer: Grant Hancock.
Bunbury, Albany, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Freeling, Adelaide, Millicent, Mount Gambier, Melbourne, Sydney, Alice Springs, 2019, 240 x 700 x 300 cm, used truck rachet
straps bought on Australian eBay, Gumtree & Gray’s Online, steel, timber, acrylic. Photographer Grant Hancock.
I developed a curiosity towards the essence of a place. My iPhone as a hub for freighting goods and
nature early in life, inquisitively has become the lens I see through, services throughout India. Sitting
interested in the way we move sketching my discoveries, evaluating on the windowsill in my Pepper
through and around landscapes, as the relationships between us and House Studio observing the Keralan
one does with sculpture and land our environment. trade, its harbour, and its daily
art. Land is one of our most precious On January 27th 2020, I left activities, I created an installation
resources which we inherit. We Adelaide and embarked upon a using 200 discarded blue cement
depend on it to survive and we utilise four-week artist exchange/residency bags titled Vessel.
natural resources to protect and in India on behalf of ACE Open and Day one in Fort Kochi I took a
regenerate it. I work, paying close the Kochi Biennale Foundation. photograph of five cement bags that
attention to the way we, as humans, This experience was a life changer. lay, seemingly abandoned on the
interact with this space, experience Intuitively, I knew I needed to footpath close to my studio. Later that
it, and respect the history of a place. experience India’s colour, customs, day, I returned to find them filled with
I explore the intersections between culture and their traditional way of the debris swept up on the footpath.
the landscape, culture, history, and life, to invigorate my art practice. The This became the first and most
human intervention. Every day is a Kerala region, specifically Fort Kochi important lesson in Kochi culture,
journey taking me closer to capturing where I was positioned, is renowned never pick up anything until one was

AUTHOR: Jane Skeer
certain it was not a vessel to contain and its botanical siblings had on me. fears and insecurities in the process.
something else. As happens, so often I worked surrounding myself with I am interested in the way colour
in my art practice, the first things these yellow, netted, organic objects evokes emotions and operates
I observe become the curiosities I for a couple of weeks, and decided autonomously. The Steady Flow
am seeking. I later observed these I needed to share this experience displays the single colour effect,
cement bags filled with plants, in public spaces around Adelaide to touches on the organic, highlighting
bricks, stones, sand, rubbish, food, deliver some festival cheer during the ability of repetition, while
coconut husks and spices - vessels these sad times. Yellow never seems emphasizing the terrible problem
which contained Kerala’s daily habits; to disappoint, resting against the of plastic.
India’s way of transporting goods green grass of the parklands, the Art is everywhere, it simply needs
and services. Vessel was my way of interaction of colour and nature to be discovered and presented to the
celebrating India, and the materials certainly elevated the encounter public by an artist. I work, responding
that do the heavy work. of the spectator in both reality and to what is going on around me,
Later, searching my Adelaide printed format. honouring my own curiosity,
studio, I discovered the 2000 yellow As an artist, I don’t want to just extending awareness of certain
fruit bags someone had given me make art: my aim is to connect topics, whilst searching for beauty in
out of disgust for their very existence and brighten up someone’s day. the world we populate.
a few years earlier. In my hands, I The Steady Flow became a way to
was soon transported back to India interact with public space, delivering
reliving the elated, sensory effect art and culture to people during Jane Skeer
that the yellow kanikonna flower Covid-19 shutdowns, calming my https://www.janeskeer.com
Twine, 2019, 270 x 800 x 800 cm, oversupplied stock of polypropylene bailing twine heading for the rubbish Two photographs from the series The Steady
dump, steel, timber. Photographer: Grant Hancock. Jane Skeer with her artwork Vessel, 2020, dimensions Flow, 2020, 83 x 65 cm each print, giclée print. iPhone
variable, used cement plastic bags. Photographer: Vikas Ramdas, Fort Cochin. photograph by artist.

AUTHOR: Emma Collerton
THREADS
EXHIBITIONS
THROUGH ART:
Australian Artist tapestries
The Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier famously described tapestries as ‘the mural
of the modern age’ with the advantage of being portable. That portability was
demonstrated in October 2019 when Bathurst Regional Art Gallery arranged for
eighteen works to be transported from around the country to the NSW Central
Tablelands city for the first major exhibition of tapestries by Australian artists.
John Olsen (artist designer) and Andrea May and Peter Churcher (weavers, Australian Tapestry Workshop), Light Playing with Evolution, 1989, 200 x 250 cm, tapestry:
cotton and wool. The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Commissioned by the Works of Art Committee of the University of Melbourne for the School of Zoology 1989
© Australian Tapestry Workshop. Photo by Jeremy Weihrauch.

T
hreads Through Art: Australian ‘Soon after World War II, Lurçat the Threads Through Art exhibition.
Tapestries was conceived as a gathered a group of French artists (See: https://cs.nga.gov.au/detail.
celebration of Australian art at the Aubusson Tapestry Workshop cfm?irn=42942).
through the tapestry medium, and [in Central France] to pursue a new Enthusiasm for the tapestry
loosely charted the collaboration of approach to the age-old textile, medium emerged in Australia
Australian artists with weavers from arguing that tapestries were the ideal through exposure to the touring
the 1960s to the present. It was also wall decoration to replace frescos.’ exhibitions Contemporary French
notable for being the first survey to Dr Herbert C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs, Tapestry (1956) and Aubusson
feature tapestries designed prior governor of the Reserve Bank of Tapestries (1966). The ground-
to the establishment in 1976 of the Australia from 1960-68, embraced breaking Contemporary French
Australian Tapestry Workshop. a similar ethos and in 1968 Tapestry, sponsored by L’Association
The French artist and weaver Jean commissioned Sydney modernist Française d’Action Artistique,
Lurçat (1892-1966) is credited by Margo Lewers (1908–78) to create a showcased the work of Cubists,
Sue Walker, former director of the painting that could be transformed Futurists, Picasso and Miró to
Australian Tapestry Workshop, with into a tapestry woven at Aubusson. Australians for the first time. Then
championing the tapestry medium The resulting Wide Penetration in 1966, the Aubusson weavers’
and the role it can play architecturally: (1968) was the earliest tapestry in Sydney agent, Lucien Dray, with the
William Robinson (artist designer), Andrea May, Hannah Rother, Tim Gresham and Grazyna Bleja (weavers, Australian Tapestry Workshop), Creation Landscape: Darkness
and light, 1991, 224.5 x 300.5 cm, tapestry: cotton and wool. Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection. Margaret Hannah Olley Art Trust 1997 © Australian Tapestry Workshop.
_____
EXHIBITIONS
‘THE AUSTRALIAN TAPESTRY

WORKSHOP ... IS ONE OF
AUSTRALIA’S LEADING
PRODUCERS OF PUBLIC ART
AND HAS PRODUCED MORE
THAN 500 CONTEMPORARY
HAND-WOVEN TAPESTRIES
USING THE FINEST AUSTRALIAN
WOOL SOURCED FROM
SUPPLIERS WHO USE BEST
PRACTICE IN AGRICULTURAL
SUSTAINABILITY.’
Nell (artist designer), Sue Batten, John Dicks and Pamela Joyce (weavers, Australian Tapestry Workshop), Let Antonia Syme, director.
Me Put My Love Into You, 2006, 161 x 300 cm, tapestry: wool and cotton. Deutsche Bank Australia Collection © _____
Australian Tapestry Workshop.
patronage of French ambassador visited Italy where he created a series practice in agricultural sustainability.
François Brière, organised for the of coloured pastels depicting various The yarn is dyed onsite by a specialist
Aubusson Tapestries exhibition to stages in St Francis’s life. In 1965, dyer who creates a palette of more
tour commercial galleries in Sydney, these were exhibited at Australian than 370 colours. The wool is grown
Melbourne and Adelaide. Initiated Galleries, Melbourne, where Anne using environmentally sustainable
to save the then-struggling town of Purves, the gallery’s director, and humane animal practices, and is
Aubusson, the exhibition featured photographed them and sent a set traceable through the supply chain
the works of high-profile European of high-quality transparencies to the back to the farms where it is grown.’
artists woven in tapestry. weavers in Portugal. Prior to the establishment of the
Viewing these exhibitions made Observed curator Robert Bell of Australian Tapestry Workshop, John
a lasting impression on emerging the National Gallery of Australia, Olsen had his tapestries woven in
artists John Olsen and John Coburn: which purchased The Gift of a Lamb Portugal and France. He noted, ‘I’ve
both immediately embraced the from the artist (see https://cs.nga. done nine tapestries altogether
medium, as did fellow artists gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=36907): ‘The [and] probably the best workshop in
Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan, spectacular craftsmanship and vivid the world is the Australian Tapestry
who collaborated with weavers at interpretation of Boyd’s imagery in Workshop. I’d love to go to Portugal,
renowned tapestry workshops in his Portalegre tapestries was an I’d love to go to France with designs,
France and Portugal. impetus for the establishment in but they are so good here I prefer to
A young Coburn had fallen in love Australia of a tapestry workshop work with them.’
with the medium when he visited where Australian artists could work Threads Through Art chose to
the Contemporary French Tapestry with local weavers.’ showcased Olsen’s Light Playing with
exhibition at the Art Gallery of New Since its inception in 1976, the Evolution, commissioned in August
South Wales in 1956, and a decade Australian Tapestry Workshop 1987 for the University of Melbourne’s
later, with the assistance of Aubusson (formerly the Victorian Tapestry zoology building and woven by the
agent Lucien Dray, he became the first Workshop) has collaborated with Australian Tapestry Workshop’s
Australian artist to have a tapestry numerous Australian artists, Andrea May and Peter Churcher.
woven in Aubusson. Coburn explained, transforming their artworks into University of Melbourne Gallery
‘I’d met touring tapestry workers thread and securing high-profile curator Frances Lindsay explained the
from the great houses at Aubusson, commissions such as Arthur choice of artist: ‘Olsen’s work contains
where they’ve woven tapestries for a Boyd’s Great Hall Tapestry (1988) at references to organic life and human
thousand years. When the weavers Parliament House, Canberra, and the endeavour within the framework of
ordered Australian wool for their four Roger Kemp tapestries created an abstracted landscape… [But] most
world-famous work, someone made between 1981 and 1991 for the importantly he is a major Australian
the connection and they offered me Great Hall at the National Gallery of artist who understands the medium of
the chance to design for them.’ Victoria, Melbourne. tapestry and can creatively collaborate
Arthur Boyd’s The Gift of a Lamb Australian Tapestry Workshop with the weavers to produce a unique
(1974), woven in Portalegre, Portugal, director Antonia Syme explained: work of art.’
and featured in Threads Through Art, ‘The workshop is one of Australia’s William Robinson also worked
evolved from a potential collaboration leading producers of public art closely with the workshop’s weavers
between Boyd and the British art and has produced more than 500 in the fabrication of Creation
historian Tom Boase, who proposed contemporary hand-woven tapestries Landscape: Darkness and light, the
that Boyd illustrate his biography of using the finest Australian wool centrepiece of Robinson’s five-panel
St Francis of Assisi. In 1964, Boyd sourced from suppliers who use best painting in the Art Gallery of Western

Gareth Sansom (artist designer), Andrea May, Peter Churcher, Hannah Rother and Jennifer Sharpe (weavers, Australian Tapestry Workshop), Family Trust, 1990, 275 x 366 cm,
tapestry: cotton and wool. Courtesy of the Australian Tapestry Workshop © Australian Tapestry Workshop.
Australia collection. Subtle biblical portrayed in the tapestry medium”. and apple. Nell was in Paris when
references seep into the tapestry with He then spent some weeks painting a her proposed tapestry commission
‘Adam and Eve’ — Robinson and wife large and somewhat disturbing canvas was granted after the chairman
Shirley — swimming in a creek and that he thought would be impossible.’ of the Deutsche Bank in Australia
a carpet snake located on a nearby But the weavers rose to the challenge and New Zealand, Clive Smith, had
bank. As the title infers, darkness and and transformed the complex approached the Australian Tapestry
light are key elements, and the dark painting, with its diverse influences of Workshop seeking a tapestry for the
background was an important colour Jean Dubuffet, Jean-Michel Basquiat, newly built Norman Foster building in
aspect for Robinson. Weaver Andrea T.S. Eliot, Francis Bacon and urban Sydney. In preparing for her tapestry,
May recalled: ‘It was a challenge to graffiti, into the tapestry Family Trust. Nell studied collections of tapestries
create an equivalent darkness in wool In all, Threads Through Art featured and visited three major tapestry
without the obvious addition of black.’ fourteen tapestries woven at the workshops in Paris — the Gobelins,
The skill of the artisan weavers Australian Tapestry Workshop and Beauvais and Savonnerie — to gain an
was challenged to another level when designed by prominent Australian insight into the creation of a tapestry
the workshop initiated a commission artists, including Janet Laurence, and how painted images are translated
with Gareth Sansom, an artist Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Nell, into the woven medium. She later
renowned for tackling provocative David Noonan, Arlene TextaQueen shadowed the Australian Tapestry
subjects. Former workshop director and John Wolseley. Workshop weavers for two weeks: ‘I
Sue Walker recalled in her 2007 book The title of Sydney artist Nell’s had a momentary foray at weaving and
Artists’ Tapestries from Australia tapestry Let Me Put My Love Into You loved it... The magic occurred for me
1976-2005 (The Beagle Press), ‘At first is the title of a song on the 1980 AC/ somewhere in that fluid and liminal
he just didn’t think it would work… DC album Back in Black, and her space between my intentions and the
“My painting is so grungy, so thick playful, edgy rock-and-roll tribute is weavers’ collective experience of all
and thin, scrapped and sprayed, that interwoven with biblical references to the possibilities available in the game
I didn’t think it could adequately be mortality, depicted through the snake of weft and warp.’
The Indigenous artist Ginger Riley

Munduwalawala, born in Arnhem
EXHIBITIONS
Land, was a Mara, or ‘saltwater’

man, and jungkayi (custodian) of his
‘mother country’. Threads Through
Art showcased his first tapestry,
Ngak Ngak (1994), with its distinctive
portrayal of a series of hills known
as Four Arches, the white sea eagle
(Ngak Ngak) and the Limmen Bight
River, all of spiritual significance. Two
years later, the Federal Government
commissioned Munduwalawala’s
My Mother’s Country, an enormous
tapestry measuring four by eight
metres for the Canberra offices of
the Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade.
The most recent tapestry featured
in Threads Through Art was Luke
Sciberras’s Bridle Track, Hill End
(2019), jointly commissioned by the
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Society
to celebrate fifty years of fundraising
for the Bathurst collection. The
tapestry was based on a small
watercolour that the artist gave his
neighbour, nurse Jim Schumacher,
as a farewell present. ‘It’s a modest
work that has come to symbolise a
friendship and a sense of place’, said
Sciberras. It took five weavers four
Luke Sciberras (artist designer), Chris Cochius, Sue Batten, Amy Cornall, Pamela Joyce and Karlie Hawking months to create Bridle Track, Hill
(weavers, Australian Tapestry Workshop), Bridle Track, Hill End, 2019, 160 x 160 cm, tapestry: cotton and wool.
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Collection. Commissioned jointly by the Gallery and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery End, and made a lasting impression
Society 2019 © Australian Tapestry Workshop. Photo by Jeremy Weihrauch. on Sciberras.
‘To have visited the workshop
twice during the process was quite
overwhelming and at once touching
in a tender way,’ he reflected. ‘The
age-old craft of tapestry weaving is
an industrial one, with machinery,
chemicals and labour. The translation
of a painterly mark into a woven
substance is often difficult to imagine,
but the long history and gifted artisans
of the Australian Tapestry Workshop
make for a seamless meeting.’
Emma Collerton, curator.

Threads Through Art: Australian Tapestries,
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery exhibition
curated by Emma Collerton with assistance
from the Australian Tapestry Workshop,
18 October – 1 December, 2019. The
Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (artist designer), Ngak Ngak, 1994, 110 x 150 cm, tapestry: cotton and wool Woven
exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated
by Australian Tapestry Workshop weaver: Irja West. Private collection, Sydney. © Australian Tapestry Workshop. catalogue, from which the quotations in this
article originate.

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EMAIL: thegirls@artwearpublications.com.au PHONE: +61 (03) 9888 1853
WEBSITE: www.artwearpublications.com.au ABN: 80 159 594 948
AUTHOR: Mandy Gunn
ARTIST PROFILE
Australia
Mandy Gunn on
WEAVING AS ARTFORM
The 1970s and 1980s saw a blossoming of interest in the handmade: crafts
such as pottery and textiles regained popularity and universities and art schools
were offering courses both full and part time. So, in 1971, when Melbourne
University offered a weaving summer school, I enrolled. My first encounter
with warps and wefts, looms, shuttles, linen threads and the intricacies of
threading a loom, it was to change my whole focus of interest. I couldn’t get
hold of a loom quickly enough.
City Circle, 2000, 44 x 44 x 8 cm, Melbourne Met cards collaged onto cardboard
construction. Photo by the artist.
ARTIST PROFILE
Firesticks 2, 2018, approx. 200 x 215 x 215 cm, cut rubber inner tubes, cotton warp, steel poles. Photo by Angus Gunn.
Crescendo, music sheets on cardboard. Mandy Gunn at her loom. Photo by Ian Gunn.

AUTHOR: Mandy Gunn
ince then, our house has always had a weaving room
S and a range of four-shaft upright and horizontal,

tapestry, rug and wall-hanging looms and I have
moved on from making linen mats to weaving with an
amazing range of non-traditional warp and weft materials,
gathered from all walks of life.
I was incredibly lucky; Warrnambool TAFE in the 1980s
introduced an off-campus tapestry diploma under the
guidance of two amazing teachers: Marie Cook and Valerie
Kirk and this was to be the start of a wonderful nine years
of art school training. It included tapestry, a new minor
subject in the Bachelor of Fine Arts at Monash University
which then led me on to two years of post-graduate
study at the Victorian College of the Arts and a Master’s
Degree shortly after. I was introduced to many different
historical and contemporary approaches and concepts and
encouraged to find my own way of expressing these.
My interest in using non-traditional materials in woven
pieces received a sudden boost in 1995 when, as a post-
grad student at the VCA, I was part of an amazing camping
trip with visits to a number of the Central Desert art
centres. We met many well-known artists and sat with
them, painting and watching. What really impressed me
then and some years later, when I spent three months at
Aurukun Community on Cape York on a weaving project,
was the innovative way in which Indigenous people made
use of what was lying around. When I returned to art Surge, 2008/9, approx. 0.5 x 20 x 15 m, installation at the Floating Land event,
school, what should I find but a whole room stacked Lake Cootharaba, Noosa. Woven Bracken sticks, twine. Photo by the artist.
with leftover cardboard. This was to be the start of my
constructed three-dimensional works in which I use
recycled papers collaged on to sheets of cardboard which
I then cut into strips using a steel ruler and a knife. All
the strips are then reconstructed in a repetitive sculptural
form over a grid base. It is in a way a form of 3D weaving.
At this time, I lived in Lilydale, a very outer suburb of
Melbourne and the terminus of the city rail link. I was
teaching in Melbourne as well as attending art school
and so was a regular passenger. Before the advent of the
Myki card, one queued up at the ticket office and asked
for a Return to the City, a phrase that became the title of
my major series using tickets saved up by me and for
me by others. This series of works, in traditional 3D grid
form, and City Circle — circular works created by layering
Surge, detail, 2008/9. Photo by the artist.
rotated grids — were shown in a number of galleries and
acquired at events such as Works on Paper at Mornington
Peninsula Gallery and the Darebin Art Prize.
I continued to make constructed works using all sorts
of recycled printed paper including well-known books,
(the Bible, Shakespeare, classics like For the Term of His
Natural Life), music sheets, fancy shopping bags, maps
and so on. These have become signature pieces. These are
sometimes quite large and encased in Perspex boxes. One
particularly large work (2.5 metres square) made in this
style was Centropolis, shown as part of the 2014 Tamworth
Textile Triennial, which toured the country. Installed
as a floor piece to create an aerial view of a shopping
centre complex (as in Centro shopping precincts), each
constructed piece was made from the type of shopping bag
that many people save because they are made from nice
paper with quite luxurious images and printing. Again,
AUTHOR: Mandy Gunn
lots of people saved bags for me, which I collaged on to

ARTIST PROFILE
cardboard to be cut into 3D constructions reminiscent of

buildings.
Printed paper was something I also started cutting up
and weaving while I was at Art School. Inspired by Coptic
tapestries and old written texts, I made a series of linen
tapestries titled Excavations with frame shapes woven
from 1993 copies of The Age, the natural linen colours
blending in with the yellowing newsprint. Then I wove
almost the whole of the Melbourne yellow pages into
a ten-metre length that hung like a waterfall from the
ceiling to the floor. Titled Scroll, it was selected as one
of three works to represent Australia at the 2010 Lodz
Tapestry Biennale in Poland and was also shown in major
Australian galleries.
I then made TEXT-ile using the whole of the Bible cut
into strips and woven into a six-metre scroll accompanied
by two huge lengths of fabric with scanned text woven on
the RMIT’s Jacquard loom. After being invited to exhibit
an altered book in a special exhibition at the VCA and
Fireball, 2013, 50 x 50 x 50 cm, sculpture – finger knitted cut up recycled inner Bendigo Regional Gallery, I wove the first of twenty to
tubes. Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Gift of the Artist. Photo courtesy of thirty more classics, dictionaries and encyclopaedias,
Wangaratta Art Gallery.
including The Oxford English Dictionary and, so far, several
volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica, exhibited as Pillars
of Wisdom. In these works, the text is transformed into
a TEXTile in the form of a scroll, an ancient method of
recording information, but the words are beaten down
into a fabric through the weaving process and, while being
recognisable as text, cannot be read.
I am always asked how long it takes to make such
things. Well, it’s certainly a long, drawn-out process. I
remove the pages from the book cover and then with
scissors cut the pages vertically into one cm strips. I
then place these by hand one at a time into the open weft
of the loom, which is threaded with a warp of number
six tapestry yarn, and then firmly beat them down.
It’s something I often do at night through the winter,
completing perhaps thirty cm at a time, so the weaving
can, with large books, take up to several months. Many of
these pieces have been acquired by regional galleries and
libraries, in particular the State Library of Queensland.
What I love about using recycled material and
rubbish is that it carries its own history which becomes
Great Expectations, 2011, 17 x 200 cm, altered book, paper bound copy of Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens, ribbon, woven printed paper pages, stitching.
incorporated into the piece one is making, deepening
Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Photo courtesy of Wangaratta Art Gallery. its meaning, adding to its conceptual aspect and often
making some social comment about life as we live it.
2009, the year I came to live in the stunning area of
South Gippsland, was the year of the Black Saturday
Bushfires. Luckily, they did not immediately impact
on us but living in a highly volatile and thick coastal
bush area, we were ready with water tanks and escape
plans. At some subconscious level I made a connection
between this and the many burnt out tyres and inner
tubes strewn along roads. After collecting these locally
and on a subsequent camping trip around the Kimberley,
I experimented with cutting and knitting, crocheting, and
finally weaving techniques, to find out how these could
be used, a process that I do with any newfound materials.
I recollect sitting in the car on many road trips, cutting
Scroll, 2007, 400 x 1000 x 60 cm, TEXT-ile, 2005. 500cm x 600cm
Melbourne Yellow Pages, cut and woven. x 50 cm cut and woven Bible, paper, inner tubes into thin fifteen-centimetre strips! Part of the
Photo by the artist. wool. Photo by the artist. trick is finding out what the materials will do best so that

AUTHOR: Mandy Gunn
one can use them to the best advantage. to length hundreds of bracken sticks which I then
Some major works emerged from this material: either wove on a loom or hand twined on site to create
burnt out inner tubes became works referring to ten metre lengths reminiscent of matchstick blinds. I
fire and the indigenous tradition of burning off to then twisted these into 3D spirals reminiscent of wave
prevent wildfire, known as firestick farming. My patterns or floated them out into the water where
Firesticks series was made from many thin, woven they appeared to be almost submerged under water.
strips up to several metres long, with the cut rubber Surge was installed in a sandy bay around the magical
strips partially inserted into the warp and the ends Lake Cootharaba at Boreen Point in the hinterland of
left hanging out to produce a sort of shag pile. The Noosa.
woven lengths were sewn around a wooden baton or Over many years I have taught weaving and other
steel tube and then leant against a wall or presented art forms. I taught at Melbourne Centre for Adult
as freestanding pieces, resembling a burnt forest. Education for twenty years, taking over from one of
Firesticks series 1 won the inaugural Wangaratta Textile our great weaving legends, Anne Greenwood, and at
Prize in 2009. A companion piece, Fireball, made from RMIT for ten years. I have also taught many textile
finger-knitted inner tubes wound into a large and workshops and classes including for a while, night
heavy ball, was also acquired by the gallery. Tamworth sessions at the Melbourne Tapestry Workshop. I
Regional Gallery, through their 2008 Textile Triennial have always encouraged students to look at different
acquired a large wall piece, Burnout completely possibilities, to experiment once they had knowledge
woven with the shag pile look. The second Firesticks of basics, to try things out and not be worried by
series was exhibited near the National Gallery of Art initial failures because I believe this way fosters true
Sculpture Garden on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra creativity, individuality and originality.
as part of the 2018 Contour 556 public art biennial. Although I work with many media, including
All of these pieces carry with them a story and painting and printmaking, I have always felt that the
make reference to the place we live in and the way we constructional aspect of weaving with its grid form
live, in particular the amount of waste we produce. and separate elements coming together as a whole
While most of the previously mentioned pieces are has had a huge influence on the way I see and make
constructed with man-made waste, there is also things. At times I feel I need to weave, to let the
natural waste; dead bracken sticks, for example. repetitive actions take over while the mind wanders —
I have participated in a number of environmental almost a form of meditation!
sculpture projects, in particular several of the Floating
Land events run by Noosa Regional Gallery. The theme Mandy Gunn
for one of these was rising water levels and its effect Mandygunn.webs.com
on Pacific islands and coastlines. I collected and cut Instagram mandy.gunn
Pillars of Wisdom, 2020, 29 cm high x variable width and depth, cut and woven pages of Encyclopaedia Brittanica, ribbon. Photo by the artist.
FEATURE
he latest project of the FHL produced through creative cross-
T-SERAI T is called T-Serai and was

exhibited at the Sharjah
Museum for Islamic Civilization
border collaborations by groups
of Syrian refugees in Jordan and
students in the USA and Europe. By
incorporating cultural design motifs,
‘As an educator and an artist, in the United Arab Emirates from
25 September to 7 December participants could record their own
I am trying to find how I 2019. This innovative project uses stories. This knowledge exchange
can be most impactful, to recycled textiles to assist refugee between participants of different
generations and backgrounds created
inspire people and bring them communities and to create artworks
opportunities to build bridges in this
together to co-create art and that can also be used as mobile
time of growing cultural and political
storage or a vertical garden.
deconstruct boundaries’, says divides.
The Project One of the T-Serai prototypes is
Dr Azra Aksamija, Bosnian T-SERAI stands for Textile System for used as a touring exhibition, as seen
artist and architectural Experimental Research in Alternative here in Sharjah, creating awareness of
historian, director of the Impact. It is a portable palace for the social and environmental cost of
transcultural futures inspired by our consumer lifestyle, as well as the
Future Heritage Lab (FHL), the cultural histories of the MENA plight of refugees across the world.
and Associate Professor at the (Middle East North Africa) region. Other T-Serai prototypes have
Massachusetts Institute The project involves the creation of been commissioned in refugee
modular tapestries using recycled camps in Jordan, exploring culturally
of Technology. clothes. These tapestries can be used sensitive approaches to humanitarian
to personalise the standard refugee intervention. By using recycled
shelters, known as T-Shelters, to clothes, the project explores how
function as mobile storage or as the surplus from the global textile
vertical gardening systems. industry could benefit threatened
T-Serai Exhibition at Sharjah Museum for Islamic
Civilization in the United Arab Emirates, 2019, Dr Azra They can also be used to set up communities. Educational and creative
Aksamija, Bosnian artist and architectural historian, tents for storytelling and other social workshops in refugee camps offer a
director of the Future Heritage Lab (FHL), and
Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute
gatherings. For this project, different means for self-expression and self-
of Technology. versions of T-Serai tents were determination allowing refugees to

AUTHOR: Ansie van der Walt
experience a fuller life where culture

is seen as an essential human need,
and a vital factor of cultural resilience
at times of conflict and crisis
According to Dr Aksamija,
refugees’ inventions can teach others
how to rethink humanitarian aid and
to approach refugee assistance, not
just by providing makeshift shelters,
but by creating civic spaces where
crucial social healing, innovation,
creativity, and cross-cultural
interactions can take place.
‘Maybe this will impact the way in
which humanitarian aid is planned,
considering the cultural and emotional
needs of displaced people by being
T-Serai Exhibition at Sharjah Museum for Islamic Civilization in the United Arab Emirates, 2019, pouffes and
informed through their voices.’ wall panels made from recycled denim and other materials.
This parallel approach of working
with museums as well as on the for Islamic Civilization (SMIC) was and to work creatively, ethically and
ground in refugee camps is based on divided into sections, each displaying efficiently in conditions of scarcity.
Dr Aksmija’s approach of connecting and explaining different aspects of The students explored creative
different cultures and establishing an the project. responses to conflict and crisis on
open human dialogue. ‘Through art, The main part of the exhibition both the global and personal scales.
history and science, museums attract represented work created by MIT They designed textile prototypes
different audiences allowing us to students during Dr Aksamija’s course for a portable palace and immersive
build bridges and connect diverse Foundations in Art, Design and transcultural space, featuring
people across borders.’ Spatial Practices in Spring 2019. The stories of cultural transfers across
course introduced the theoretical the globe. The stories embedded
The Exhibition and practical tools to create cultural in the textiles represented the
The exhibition at the Sharjah Museum interventions in fragile environments students’ individual reinterpretations
T-Serai Exhibition
at Sharjah Museum
for Islamic Civilization
in the United Arab
Emirates, 2019,
donated surplus clothes
illustrating the ‘surplus
& scarcity’ concept. 53
Subscribers get a free newsletter every issue, filled with exhibitions and calls for entries
makeshift shops, small kitchen
gardens, children’s drawings, birds in
a cage, toys made from recycled food
FEATURE
packaging; paintings and artworks

made by refugees depicting the
homes and homelives they have lost
and are longing for.
Part of this educational process
taking place between students and
refugees is the documentation of the
research, learning, and execution
of place-making. Against one wall
of the gallery were several graphic
representations of these processes.
Line drawings and schematic
infographics explaining both the
thought process and the practical
process that went into this project.
T-Serai Exhibition at Sharjah Museum for Islamic Civilization in the United Arab Emirates, 2019, panels made Ottoman tents and Egyptian
from repurposed donated clothes by participating students.
khayamiyas - elaborately coloured
and patterned appliqué tent panels
of selected historical events and home and sharing both food and – are some of the cultural elements
cultural traditions. They also reflect experiences with others. Sofra inspiring this project. Included on the
the students’ diverse disciplinary and symbolises agreement and discussion far end of the gallery was one such
cultural backgrounds. This creative around a dining table, in this way my khayamiya on loan from the Islamic
process allowed for connecting tapestry represents a portable home Arts Museum Malaysia. A rare silk
across borders. away from home which fosters social panel dating from the 1920s revealing
As an example, one of the interaction the transition from nineteenth-
students, Alexander Boccon-Gibod and discussion.’ century architectural textiles
was inspired by the carpet weaving The tapestries formed a hanging to twentieth-century artworks.
tradition of Pirot, his mother’s enclosure in the centre of the gallery It features a range of Islamic
hometown in Southern Serbia. He space, allowing visitors to walk architectural references executed in
chose thick fabric in blue, red, and through the ‘tent’ to experience small scale and very fine stitching
white to emulate the texture and the enclosure from both inside and using shades of blue and beige silk.
traditional colours of Serbian cilimi. out and to explore the fabrics and To bring this exhibition to life, a real
The two traditional symbols he chose techniques from up close. tent or ‘Portable Palace’, similar to the
to incorporate was the konjača, On the outside of this hanging ones used in the refugee camps were
a turtle representing the idea of enclosure, on the walls of the gallery erected in the museum foyer. This tent
shelter, specifically portable shelter, were works explaining the processes was used throughout the exhibition
as well as prosperity, family unity used, adding context and background. period as a place for visitors and
and fertility. He also incorporated Fact sheets with information on the school groups to learn and experience
the sofra, a word originating from the Syrian refugee crisis; images from the value of such a communal
Turkish word for dining room table. the refugee camp giving visitors intercultural meeting space. Tea
‘I took it to represent the idea of a glimpse of life on the inside – ceremonies, creative workshops and
book readings were held here.
One of the tragic consequences
of forced displacement is the
interruption of the education process.
It is, therefore, important to make
quality alternative education available
to displaced people and address
their loss of history, memory and
identity. ‘An understanding of creative
expression in different cultural
contexts and the reinterpretation
of cultural heritage in the built
environment within the context
of the refugee camps is therefore
indispensable.’ Says Dr Aksimija.
‘The creative workshops in the
T-Serai Exhibition at Sharjah Museum for Islamic refugee camps allow for creative
Civilization in the United Arab Emirates, 2019, panels made expression, self-determination, and
from repurposed donated clothes by participating students. knowledge exchange across borders
and generations. Lessons in sewing,

AUTHOR: Ansie van der Walt
THE SYRIAN
REFUGEE
SITUATION
• Today, more than 65 million people
worldwide have been forcefully displaced.
• Over 5.6 million people have fled Syria

since 2011, seeking refuge in Lebanon,
Turkey, Jordan, and other countries.
• Over 6.6 million are internally displaced

and as the war continues, more than 13
million need urgent assistance in Syria.
• Facing the constantly growing number

of Syrian refugees, the host countries
have been experiencing enormous
economic and environmental challenges.
• Jordan is home to 670 000 Syrian

refugees, which accounts for about
10% of the country’s population.
• It is the third-largest host country after

Turkey with 3.6 million and Lebanon
with 950 000 people.
• Most Syrian refugees in Jordan live in

cities and villages integrated into the
host community, but many also live in
refugee camps.
• The largest refugee camp in Jordan

is called Al Zaatari – it is the second-
largest refugee camp in the world. It
opened in 2012, less than 16 km from
the Syrian border. Since then Zaatari
has become Jordan’s fourth largest ‘city’
housing 78 000 Syrian refugees.
• Al Azraq Camp was opened in April

2014 to respond with the overflow of
refugees in Al Zaatari camp. Different
from the Al Zaatari camp, which had
been criticised as chaotic, the Azraq
camp was centrally planned to increase
security measures, and to also limit
refugee access to the outside.
• Both camps are managed by the

Jordanian government with the
support of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
T-Serai Exhibition at Sharjah Museum for Islamic Civilization in the United Arab Emirates,
Blue Silk Panel, 1920-1940, blue cotton and silk tent panel in the style of Khedivial khayamiya on loan
from the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Photo by Ansie van der Walt.
textile history, and contemporary Ansie van der Walt Artists: Staff and undergraduate students of
design inform the design of tapestries Azra Aksamija’s course Foundations in Arts,
https://thefabricthread.com/
Design, and Spatial Practices, MIT Department
inspired by ornaments from historical of Architecture, Spring 2019. Communication-
monuments and traditional textile T-Serai by Azra Aksamija and the MIT Future intensive component instructor: Cherie
motifs.’ Heritage Lab in collaboration with The Sharjah
Miot Abbanat. Teaching assistants: Jaya
Museum of Islamic Civilization. The exhibition
Exhibitions like this one in Sharjah, was displayed at the Sharjah Museum of
Eyzaguirre and Yaara Yacoby. Students:
and university projects like the one Zidane Abubakar, Lisbeth Acevedo Ogando,
Islamic Civilization, Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates, from 25 September to 7 December Erika Anderson, Alexander Boccon-Gibod,
at the Future Heritage Lab, serve the Landon Buckland, Jierui Fang, Alejandro
2019. https://www.futureheritagelab.com/
same purpose – to raise awareness Gonzalez-Placito, Alice Ho, Effie Jia, Seo Yeon
about refugees’ cultural and All photos provided by Sharjah Museum Kwak, Daniel Landez, Christopher Larry,
emotional needs. Authority unless otherwise stated. Yi Yang, Annie Zhang.
SITUATION SVENJA
SITUATION
SVENJA
The Making Game becomes
the Waiting Game
Australia
Svenja, Lattice Kelp,

2020, 42 x 60 cm, moulded
and painted leather and
3D printing on dyed and
free-motion embroidered
satin base.
AUTHOR: Svenja
Kelp Waves #3, 2020, 55 x 155 cm, moulded and painted leather on dyed, painted, and free-motion embroidered base. Photo by the artist.
Over the years, I’ve learned when to push, when not to push, and when to simply wait
with open mind. As the trickier pieces for my current exhibition project began to resolve,
and more and more works found their way onto frames, it’s as if a phase of this initial
process of creation and production is… not over, but more settled. I am spending
more time on painting, and I have commenced work on sculptural installation pieces
conceptualised during the time on King Island. A year down the track, and finally it feels
like the right time to forge ahead, as though I needed to do the interim works in order to
get to this place, and I’m at peace with that timing.
A
s mentioned previously, the took in nature over a year ago is that This takes me to my current colour
past year has been something the passing of time has loosened and material palette – it has been
of a creative struggle, as I up my visual interpretations beyond a drastic change from sparkling
shift from the comfort zone of making memory, which is a good thing. spandex, opalescent organza,
wearable art to textile art works, My former process began with the crystals and sequins all in a riot of
trying to continue to use rather body as a framework which, combined glittering, vibrant colours, to largely
than waste the many techniques with nature-based inspiration, gave me browns, greens, blacks and beige.
I have learned over the years. I a definitive starting point from which At least the silk and satin element
feel in part that it is a journey to I was free to combine the two into has remained, and sometimes I have
abstraction, as I look to working almost anything I possibly could. Now allowed myself a watered-down
away from representation towards I feel more constrained by the need glimmer of metallic paint…
concepts, textures, and lines. If you to have a genuine sense of purpose in Hand stitching has always been
had told me in the not-too-distant putting elements together. I suppose present as a finishing step in my
past that I would be looking towards there’s more narrative in this form of work, with the afore-mentioned
abstraction, I would have reeled, but working – more of a sense of trying to sequins and beads, but is now
when I think about it – most of my create an understandable meaning. I becoming part of the language of
wearable art works were concepts feel as though I have more of a voice, mark-making, as I learn to draw with
abstracted to accommodate the body therefore I am more conscious of what fibre and thread.
– so perhaps it’s not such a stretch. I am trying to say. There’s certainly no Returning to the start of this
Something I’ve noticed in regards to popping on some beads and sequins article and the effect of framing my
this and the many reference photos I because they look magnificent. current works – it is amazing the
AUTHOR: Svenja
SITUATION SVENJA
_____
IF YOU HAD TOLD ME IN

THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT
PAST THAT I WOULD
BE LOOKING TOWARDS
ABSTRACTION, I WOULD
HAVE REELED, BUT WHEN
I THINK ABOUT IT – MOST
OF MY WEARABLE ART
WORKS WERE CONCEPTS
ABSTRACTED TO
ACCOMMODATE THE BODY
_____
difference it makes to see them neat

edged and tightly stretched, no longer
looking like odd remnant pieces.
There’s a uniformity to them provided
not just by the same size framework
chosen for nearly all of them, but in
the focal areas. It pleases me that I
took the time to decide on the overall
Naracoopa Rocks Triptych (detail), 2020, 30 x 90 x Kelp Waves #3 (detail), 2020, metallic paint over
3 cm, detail showing moulded and painted leather, 3D free-motion embroidered and dyed satin background. size initially, then to do drawings
printing, silk paper and free-motion embroidery. Photo by the artist. at that scale with the same central
template – a plate. Most works curl
around this shape which has helped
create a sense of homogeneity.
Now I have reached an even more
unfamiliar stage of having works
ready to exhibit with no specific venue
in sight, and long waiting lists for any
contenders; yet I really want to see
this exhibition come together soon.
I feel as though it will lose meaning
for me if the combined works don’t
get seen as a whole for several years.
With numerous applications already
rejected I do feel rather despondent,
but remind myself that it is partly a
numbers game, particularly in late
2020 which is when I’m writing this,
and I keep plugging away at gallery
applications, as well as creating.
I’ve often queried how on earth one
starts the proposal process before
the making process in order to avoid
this lag? Perhaps it comes with
experience. I suspect that more often
it simply has to be endured.
Svenja
https://studiosvenja.wixsite.com/
mysite
https://www.facebook.com/
Mossy Rocks #1 (detail), 2020. 42 x 60 cm, corduroy on botanically dyed silk, free-motion embroidery, beading. StudioSvenja/

To submit your artwork, email one or two photos of your
READER
favourite piece to: tffeditor@artwearpublications.com.
au The photos should be jpg files between 2 and 5mb.
Include your name, artwork title, your country, the year
it was created (if known), dimensions and materials. If
there is an artist statement or other short explanation
GALLERY of the piece, please include this. Make sure photographs

are perfectly in focus, taken front on (in the case of 2D)
and with no distracting background elements. Include a
detail shot, if you wish.
Joan Mahony - Victoria M y interest in basket making commenced

about ten years ago when I attended
some local workshops on the subject but I
am primarily self-taught. I spend much time
walking the wetlands that front my country
home. I have lived on a farm all my life and
am very much into recycling and reusing
whenever possible. Whenever I’m walking, I
cannot help but look for anything that can be
used in my creative works, primarily weaving,
my obsession is insatiable and incredibly
rewarding. I experiment continually, naturally
not always successful, but that’s part of my
creative journey.
I am a member of Corangamite Arts,
in Camperdown in Victoria but during
Covid19 the art group closed. However, the
inspiration I get from the well-acknowledged
international Bookaar Wetlands in Western
Victoria that is my backyard has encouraged
me to embrace this time at home.
It has taken years to find which medium
I preferred to work with. Natural fibres and
also materials destined to landfill are my
passion. For example, unwanted haybands
that originated from a local stock feed
store. Hayband is a man-made fibre that
does not break down well; accordingly, it is
detrimental to the environment. So, making
beauty from such materials is paramount
to me. I used this material to make the Pink
Joan Mahony, Pink Grass Trees, 2020, tallest: 140 x 40 cm; middle size: 70 x 30 cm; smallest: Grass Trees, an example of my woven re-
is 55 x 30 cm, nylon, PVC pipe.
cycled artwork which I completed during
lockdown. I used hayband woven using
buttonhole loops over PVC pipe then pulled
all the work inside out giving a bumpy effect
due to knots being on the inside. The tops are
shredded hayband tucked into the top of the
pipe. I love the way hayband moves in the
wind when split to form a hair or grass-like
feature. The background is beautiful Lake
Gnotuk near Camperdown, Victoria.
In 2019, I ran a workshop on basic weaving
techniques due to the high interest from
fellow artists of my creations. People are
hoping I shall do further workshops. I am
quietly surprised by people’s responses to
my creations as I regard myself as a novice.
It would seem my years of perseverance
Joan Mahony, untitled, 2020, 120 x 100 cm, Joan Mahony, untitled, 2020, 55 x 30 cm,
recycled garden hose, with discarded metal mesh, recycled soaker hose woven in the Maori food have honed my abilities, hence the interest
cordyline leaves willow and yellow leather off cuts. basket technique. from others.
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BOOK and
Village, Country, City, Nation
World. In doing so, she
BOOKS
echoes Austen’s identity-led
REVIEWS insight into the period: the

‘microcosm that reflected
macrocosms’ found in
RRP Austen’s novels.
Dress in the Age of Jane $61.95 Davidson deliberately
excludes certain types
Austen: Regency Fashion of Regency dress
from her analysis: the
Hilary Davidson legal profession, coronation wear,
Yale University Press civilian uniforms, religious orders, children’s
ISBN: 9780300218725 dress and that of the poor. Her focus is otherwise
unwavering concerning the production, distribution
his delightful title is the début monograph from and consumption of fashion during this period, and
T dress and textile historian Dr. Hilary Davidson,

an Honorary Associate (School of Arts, Letters
& Media) at the University of Sydney. She was
what it meant as an indicator of social difference or
connection. Of particular interest is the way Davidson
specifically links Regency fashion to the wider
previously the curator of Fashion & Decorative Arts at concerns of Empire, maritime trade, and the colonial
the Museum of London (2007-12). experience: New South Wales is discussed towards
In 2007, Davidson embarked on a unique project the end of the concluding chapter. Austen had two
to reconstruct a brown silk pelisse (1812-14), the brothers who went on to distinguish themselves in
only know garment associated with Austen, in the the Royal Navy: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Francis, and
collection of the Hampshire County Museum Service Rear-Admiral Charles. It was a subject Austen knew
& Archives. She also consulted to Jane Austen’s intimately, as both she and her sister Cassandra
House Museum and Chawton House (Library) while made shirts for their brothers. Men’s fashions, both
she was living in Hampshire. Austen’s novels have civilian and military, receive considerable attention
never been out of fashion, and Davidson’s scholarly from Davidson, although the remaining examples are
but entertaining text caters to both the substantial often fewer. Such is also the case for the clothing of
audience for unabashed ‘Austen-mania’, and a wider servants, labourers and agricultural workers, which
readership seeking a thorough overview of fashion she also addresses.
during the ‘long Regency’ period from 1795 to c.1825. Considerable effort has been devoted to the visual
This era, characterised by distinctive developments component of the book: nearly 200 illustrations,
in British society, politics, culture, architecture, predominantly in colour, including paintings,
technology, the arts and fashion, constituted something fashion plates, contemporary cartoons, documents,
akin to a mini-Renaissance. The span of these social advertisements and patterns, drawings, and sketches.
and aesthetic achievements is often considered to Unsurprisingly, over half of the historic garments
be longer than the ‘actual’ Regency (1811-20), when featured are drawn from British public collections,
the Prince of Wales (later George IV) became proxy followed by those in North America, and various
ruler when his father George III was deemed too private holdings. The local audience may recognise
incapacitated. Since her publication period of 1811-17 the gowns selected from the National Gallery of
coincides with it, Jane Austen (1775-1817) is widely Victoria and the National Museum of Australia,
regarded as the quintessential author of this period. respectively. The garments are well photographed,
The seemingly inexhaustible appetite for film and either on mannequins or flat, but it would have been
television adaptations of Austen’s novels, particularly advantageous to see more of them reproduced full-
during the 1990s, has occasioned something of a page, in preference to the paintings and illustrations.
media-inspired fetish for Regency fashion. The volume concludes with Austen’s family tree; a
Austen’s keen observations about the genteel, list of her fictional characters; an illustrated guide to
middle-class milieu in which she lived provides changes in the construction of women’s gowns (1790-
valuable insights into the customs and manners of 1820), and an extensive glossary of terms. Dress in
the period as a lived or ‘commonplace’ experience. As the Age of Jane Austen is sure to be an indispensable
Davidson points out, “how Austen’s contemporaries resource for Austen’s global fan-base, as a pictorial
saw people wearing clothes is not the same as how complement to her novels, and for anyone interested
we see them retrospectively”. Throughout the book, in fashion as Austen, and others of her class, would
Davidson seeks to debunk the ‘dress mythologies’ have understood it. As a contribution to the field, this
that have built up around the Regency period, and work certainly exemplifies Davidson’s observation
in the ‘heritage space of Austenland’. Eschewing a that, “clothing always has agency and reach beyond
chronological approach, Davidson structures the text the purposes for which it was made”.
into seven chapters, reflecting the social spheres as
Austen would have experienced them: Self, Home, Inga Walton
Feminist Subjectivities artists by these still-lingering prejudices.
Feminist insights are key to unravelling these
in Fiber Art and Craft: perspectives, and though Lacan, Freud, the
phallic and other patriarchal systems of
Shadows of Affect
BOOKS
oppression are evoked by Corso Esquivel (even

if just for contrast), his final chapter embraces
Author: John Corso Esquivel the matrixial, an underpinning framework
Routledge based upon the womb, as expressions of
ISBN: 978-0-8153-7428-2 connectedness.
As could be expected of such a theory-
his theoretically focussed book, written rich text, emphasis is upon extended written
T by emerging North American academic

John Corso Esquivel, extends art and
craft scholarship beyond usual dialogues
examination and as a result pages are
interspersed with few black and white images
and the insertion of two sets of coloured images
RRP: $252
RRP
$252.00
positing craft in relation to biases - the lows between central chapters. Though limited,
and highs – prevalent in Westernised art these images are critical to grounding the text (hardback),
history. Instead, Corso Esquivel discusses in real-world examples, enabling insight into $77.99 (paperback)
fibre art and craft, using case studies from the artwork details Corso Esquivel draws out. This or $63.89 (eBook)
enduring practices of eight established women book is written for theoreticians and often from
artists from United States and Latin America, a viewer’s or non-maker’s perspective, meaning _____
to scrutinise the affective power of textiles. that overall, the practitioner’s perspective and
This argument builds from the work of seminal the tangible materiality of textiles are largely
philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, omitted from the conversation. At times Corso
WHILE
and emphasises pleasurable and positive Esquivel quotes the artists whose work he is PRACTITIONERS
readings of textile art, which Corso Esquivel citing, but overwhelmingly turns to others - to KNOW BODILY
claims provides an alternative way to extend curators, reviewers, theorists, historians and THAT MAKING
the social aspects of feminist art. Published philosophers - to interpret and comment on WITH THREAD,
under the banner of the Routledge series their works of art, installation and materiality.
Research in Gender and Art, this book unfolds This regular omission of the artist’s voice
CLOTH, AND
over five chapters delving into feminist and does not fully embrace the insights enabled OTHER TEXTILES
affective textile qualities, including shadows by practice, insight that could be unpacked, IS A MEANING-
and silhouettes, repetitiveness, creative understood and applied culturally. As such, FILLED AND FELT
intuition, the politics of identity (particularly this approach raises questions around
highlighting the mutability of identities), as how this conversation, going back to Corso
PRACTICE, THIS
well as the spatial and networked possibilities Esquivel’s claims, can extend the affective and KNOWLEDGE
of fibre sculpture. In this way, Corso Esquivel social aspects of feminist art, when for many HAS BEEN
contributes his voice to a larger collective of practitioners the potential of textiles lies in the UNDER-
scholars in craft, textiles and fibre who are rhythms, paces, touch, and haptic knowledge SCRUTINISED
updating how these modes of making are associated with handling these materials,
written about. known only through practice itself.
(AND EVEN
The scholarly nature of this book aims Even if the convolutions of this theory- DENIGRATED),
it toward postgraduate researchers and rich text are outside of a practitioner’s joy ALONGSIDE
academics, particularly those focussed and developed intelligence with textiles, this OTHER CRAFT
upon entangling textiles with pre-existing book remains heartening in several ways.
QUALITIES
historical and theoretical knots, through new First of all, that within the art historical
perspectives. Corso Esquivel immerses his lineage of textile and craft writing, books SINCE LATE
discussion of the practices of artists Ruth such as this are readdressing the gap around MODERNISM.
Asawa, Sheila Pepe, Judith Scott, Claire taking crafted making seriously. The extent _____
Falkenstein, Sonia Gomes, Shinique Smith, of Corso Esquivel’s argument pays homage
Gego and Janet Echelman, within deep to the important work of connection being
theoretical convolutions engaging with theories undertaken by artists, many of whom have
by Bracha Ettinger, Elizabeth Grosz, Henri been working for decades. Secondly, it
Bergson, Brian Massumi, to name just a few. celebrates significant work by female artists.
His embrace of theory brings critical and The author notes, of late, overdue recognition
theoretical depth, until recently missing from is being directed toward artists such as Asawa,
craft scholarship, to areas of focus such as whose work has long been held in collections
repetition and difference. While practitioners but is now proudly hung by galleries. This
know bodily that making with thread, cloth, institutional turn toward textiles and fibre in
and other textiles is a meaning-filled and felt art and craft, is indicative of the shift toward
practice, this knowledge has been under- deeper consideration of such practices. This
scrutinised (and even denigrated), alongside book itself is indicative of this textile turn,
other craft qualities since late Modernism. while also contributing to it.
Peppered throughout the book are reminders of
the damage inflicted upon women and feminist Sera Waters

Joana Vasconcelos: In one such piece, twenty-one
ceramic dogs - kitsch ceramic
Maximal representations of domestic pets
- are suspended from a moving
Edited by Achim Sommer conveyer, like sides of beef in an
Hirmer Publishers / Max Ernst Museum abattoir. When a visitor starts the
RRP machine, the dogs swing and strike
Brühl des LVR $80.00
each other, smashing and creating a
ISBN: 9783777433325
growing pile of shards beneath.
ortuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos (b. 1971) is Vasconcelos creates works that are thoughtful,
P internationally renowned for her monumental

three-dimensional installations and sculptures.
She uses a wide variety of materials and methods, from
provocative and profound, using her work to provide
observations and critical commentary on social issues
such as cultural identity, gender, the fashion industry,
crocheted yarns and sequined fabrics, to electrical and the industrial exploitation of domesticated
appliances, pots and pans, plastic dolls and hair curlers. animals. By repurposing items of daily use to create an
Inspired by Dada and Surrealist artists including Max unconventional form of surreal art object, Vasconcelos
Ernst and Marcel Duchamp, she employs similar both encourages and challenges viewers to reinterpret
techniques such as repurposing or recontextualisation of objects, turn a reflexive eye upon themselves and
everyday objects, playing with scale to create oversized society, and reconsider our own uses and abuses of
versions of items, and using materials inappropriate to things – objects and creatures – and our industrialised
function, methods that she uses to explore conceptual societies.
themes and to surprise and provoke the viewer. The catalogue concludes with a series of
The text of this 224-page book is in German and appendices: a list of the illustrated works; exhibitions,
English. It begins with a foreword and introductory commissions, public art projects, performances and
observations by the editor, Achim Sommer, director happenings and awards; and a bibliography. This
of the Max Ernst Museum Bruhl des LVR. Vasconcelos gives a clear picture of an artist who has been highly
was invited to engage in an artistic dialogue with works productive and achieved international recognition. This
in the collection, one of several artists who have been book provides an excellent introduction to the work and
invited to exhibit in this way since the Museum opened career of this provocative artist.
in 2005. The publication was produced as a catalogue to Moira Simpson
accompany her exhibition, which included objects and
installations from the previous twenty years, as well as
can do
new pieces produced in response to exhibits in the Max
Ernst Museum.
The book is lavishly illustrated. The bulk of it—
from pages 28 to 169—comprises a catalogue of the
BOOKS
exhibited works. One of the book’s strengths—and
most significant differences from most art books—is
the extensive photographic documentation of each
work. A series of photographs of each sculpture and
installation includes views from multiple angles and
closeups, providing detail of materials and structure. • Mail order
Photographs also show the context in which the
artworks were displayed in the galleries alongside
• Shop online
works by other artists, so the reader is able to • Fast Shipping
appreciate the visual and / or conceptual links between
works by Vasconcelos and those of artists, such as
Max Ernst and other Dada and Surrealist artists candobooks.com.au
represented in the Museum’s collections.
Two essays follow, in which each author examines
Vasconcelos’s her work from a different perspective.
In Material Change, Friederike Vosskamp examines
the artist’s use of the medium of textiles and “its
ee
Frcatalogue
associated techniques (which are usually not assigned
to the classic canon of artistic materials, but rather Contact us for
to the fields of craftsmanship and applied arts) and a free catalogue.
transforms them into high art”.
In Passerelle, Patrick Blümel looks at “Creative
destruction in the work of Joana Vasconcelos”, through 39 Clifford Street, Huntingdale VIC 3166
examination of some of her kinetic sculptures and Tel: 1300 308 261
strategies she has used to actively engage viewers. Email: info@candobooks.com.au
the back. I promise, no one will know! Okay, the sheep
ALL THAT will probably know, but I doubt he’ll tell anyone.
“But Molli,” I already hear you saying, “I’ll be here for
SPARKLES the next thirty-seven years finishing all of these WIPs”.
I feel ya, I really do. That’s why I’m gonna let you in on
Molli Sparkles the next little secret to finishing WIPs: don’t finish them.
Go on, clutch those pearls! Now, how am I gonna try and
WIP It Good tell you to finish all your projects by not finishing them.
How’s that work? It’s as simple as those three words:
don’t finish them.
I can almost guarantee that you set about on a new
f there was ever a time to be weighed down with project because you wanted to play with textiles. It
I distractions, it’s been the 2020-21 season of starts and

stops. Over the past eighteen months, I’ve managed
to find solace from less than desirable world events by
was never about the final object. Yes, a finished piece
is wonderful, but it’s the process that brings joy. If joy
was only found in the final outcome you wouldn’t be
locking myself in my sewing studio and playing with an artist, you’d just be a consumer. Sometimes in our
fabrics. Well, I say fabrics, but that also includes buttons, artistic journey we need to realise that we’re gaining our
and ribbons, and paper crafts, and paints, and embroidery knowledge and experience from a certain segment of
threads, and literally anything that offers some semblance the process. If somewhere along that journey you’re no
of distraction. This has helped me immensely as I’ve longer finding artistic contentment, what’s the point? If
processed my feelings and thoughts by channeling energy the only point is that you have a felted vase at the end,
through the tactility of textiles and other craft work. well, just acquire a felted vase, instead.
However, my studio is now about to pop with a plethora of So, if you’ve had your fun, and that WIP has given you
unfinished projects! all the fulfilment it can, take that work-in-progress and
Are you like me? Have you started seemingly everything, throw it out. Literally, put it in the trash can. I see you
with best intentions of course, only to fizzle out before you clutching your pearls again. Okay, so you don’t want to
finish? Are you running out of space to hold your collective throw it out with last night’s leftovers. Fair enough. Have
starts? Is the idea of all those unfinished beauties weighing you thought about gifting it to another artist friend for
you down? Does finishing even matter to you? So many them to finish? Trading it for someone else’s WIP for a
questions, and I’m sure on any given day your answers may new inspirational springboard? Or just drop it off at your
shift and change. However, what I am sure of is that works- local charity shop for them to resell. There are plenty of
in-progress, despite how you deal with them, can absorb a people who can’t afford brand new materials, and I’m
lot of emotional energy. Because of this, I wanted to share sure they’d love to up-cycle work that you no longer have
a few ways that you can whip them into submission. a need for. The message here is that you shouldn’t feel
I mean, the most obvious solution is just to finish your the need to keep devoting energy into a project that isn’t
damn projects! If you want something done right, you’re giving anything back to you.
gonna have to get up and do it yourself. I know that is easier My last tidbit of advice for your ever-growing mountain
said than done, but perhaps consider altering your original of WIPs, is simply to put them in time out. So many
plan to make the finish line more attainable. Forego the times, I’ve grown tired of working on a project in that
custom hand-embroidery, scale back the salacious sizing, moment. As previously mentioned, maybe it’s no longer
or just buy that skein of organic wool yarn instead of fulfilling your artistic growth. Conversely, you could just
spinning your own from the sheep you’ve been raising out be bored AF over a colour palette you picked out last
spring. Don’t beat that dead project, and certainly don’t
beat yourself over no longer holding the same level of
enthusiasm. If you ain’t having fun doing what you’re
doing in your art practice, girl, you need to stop doing it.
Throw that ice-dyed, hand-woven, mini-sarong into the
pile of WIPs and pick up something else that’s gonna give
you life! We already know you’ve got plenty of other ones
to work on, so what’s stopping you? Dive in deep and
work those WIPs out; the old ones will still be there when
you’re ready.
Never hesitate to start a new project, and even more,
never feel shame for not finishing it. If those textiles are
fulfilling your creative journey, you are on the right path.
Now that you have some tips to let go of the stress of a
mountain of WIPs, you best be whipping it good, real good.
Molli Sparkles
mollisparkles.com
Molli Sparkles, 2020, altering the design of a WIP and paper-pieced WIP. instagram: molli_sparkles

Pacific
Patterns
October 17th - November 4th 2021
February 21st - March 7th 2021 (TBF)
New Zealand born textile artist Carole Douglas, will take you
into the heart of South Pacific arts in galleries, museums,
private collections, studios and markets. During a journey that
explores Aotearoa’s cultural diversity you will meet traditional
and contemporary artists who work across a range of mediums
and enjoy cultural events while enjoying the tranquil beauty of
Aotearoa. And you don’t have to be an artist to appreciate new
ideas in our special ‘hands on’ demonstrations and workshops.
Carole’s extensive background as a teacher, tutor and advisor in
New Zealand will offer special insights into a rich material culture.
Itinerary: Auckland, Wellington, Nelson
by bus, train and ferry with stops along the way.
Expressions of Interest taken now.
All enquiries and tour details: Tour bookings:

Carole Douglas, Desert Traditions Rob Lovell, Alumni Travel 2TA003088
Mob: + 61 438 772 795 Phone: (02) 9290 3856/1300 799 887
email:caroled@bigpond.net.au email:robl@alumnitravel.com.au
www.desert-traditions.com www.alumnitravel.com.au
https://globaltextilehub.com
JULIE
BRENNAN
SEE ARTICLE,
PAGE 12
Metamorphosis I - Generation: Regeneration,
2020, 122 x 66 x 6 cm, wool, silk, synthetic velvet.
Photo by Stephanie Simko.

Textile Fibre Forum Issue 142-June 2021

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#142

ARTIST PROFILES * FEATURES * E X H I B I T I O N S * R E V I E W S

Assorted arts and

Issue 17: we’ve

Vintage Made is published in June and December each year.

Subscribe via www.artwearpublications.com.au

03 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR – Moira G. Simpson

04 MONA HESSING – Cathie Griffith with Julie Brennan

– Julie Brennan with Cathie Griffith

21 LIVING QUILTS – Jane Ingram Allen

Save now and subscribe! www.artwearpublications.com.au

AUSTRALIAN FIBRE ART AWARD

Artworks chosen as ﬁnalists will be exhibited in an exhibition

Closing date for entries Friday 2nd July 2021

Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc.

Never miss an issue! www.artwearpublications.com.au 3

Anthony Browell, Mona Hessing, 1973, 39

M lived with her grandparents

6 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1973. 1973.278.1-11

8 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

Mona Hessing, Banner, 1971, 245 x 2375 cm, wool,

Mona Hessing, A Light unto my Path, 1979, approx.

10 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

TRADITIONAL MATERIALS LIKE WOOL, SILK, JUTE AND SISAL

the Mona Hessing

n 2005, the newly formed Eurobodalla Fibre and Textile

I Artist Group (EFTAG) held its first exhibition. It included

12 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

Feltmaking is Julie Brennan’s passion. Metamorphosis I - Generation:

Julie Brennan, Dare to be Different (Detail

Never miss an issue! www.artwearpublications.com.au 13

Julie Armstrong grew up within a

She incorporates fibre, textiles,

Julie Armstrong’s sketchbook. Photo by Lorna Crane.

14 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum

Alison Bogg has worked in the performing arts in areas of

Reflecting on the connections made between artist,

Lorna Crane, Fragile Earth series, 2020,

Painting, printmaking, and textiles

‘Fibre for me has that intrinsic

16 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

A Notion of the Feeling is a collection of books created using hand-dyed fabrics

Cathie Griffith’s sketchbook with early stages of

Save now and subscribe! www.artwearpublications.com.au 17

Details of Transference: photos by (top

18 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

Stephanie Simko explores new

Stephanie Simko, Inside Out, 2020,

Mischi West is a founding member

Mischi West, Homage, 2020, 380 x 60 cm, hand-

If you’re curious to see more, you might like

20 ISSUE NO.142 Textile Fibre Forum www.artwearpublications.com.au

Living Quilt for Sojourner Truth, 2020, design for

Jane Ingram Allen installing Living Quilt for

Lancaster Eco Quilt, 2016, volunteers helping with

Lancaster Eco Quilt, 2016, 8 x 10 x 5 feet, handmade

EVENTUALLY THEY BLOOM

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Living Quilt for Newnan, 2017, 8 feet x 10 feet x

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WAR & PIECED

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