in the world: head, hand, heart -17 tamworth f t biennial · vivonne thwaites is a curator based in...

Nalda Searles

Holly Story

Bede Tungatalem

Wilma Walker

Ilka White

Irmina van Niele

Rosemary Whitehead

Liz Williamson

Jean Baptiste Apuatimi

Aadje Bruce

Susanna Castleden

Chris De Rosa

Sandy Elverd

Ernabella Artists

Helen Fuller

Julie Gough

Barbie Greenshields

Catherine Grundy

Beth Hatton

Glenys Hodgeman

Osmond Kantilla

Naomi Kantjuri

Kay Lawrence

Susan Mader

Petra Meer

Sophie Morris

Michelle Nikou

Toby Richardson

CURATED BY VIVONNE THWAITES

In the Wor ld: head, hand, hear t - 17TH TAMWORTH FIBRE TEXTILE BIENNIAL

Vivonne Thwaites is acurator based in Adelaide,South Australia, AdjunctLecturer at the SouthAustralian School of Art,University of South Australiaand a recipient of theUniversity of Sydney 2006Power Studio, Paris.

Recent curated projects havebeen: Writing a painting 2006;Holy Holy Holy 2004; Home iswhere the heart is 2001; Karrawirraparri 2000; Three views ofKaurna territory now 1998.

[email protected]

Publisher Tamworth Regional Gallery

Exhibition and tour managerMeg Larkin

Project Curator Vivonne Thwaites

Catalogue designerLyn Mitchell

Editor: Stephanie Radok

Printer: Finsbury Press

ISBN 0 9577871 7 0

© the artists, the authors andTamworth Regional Gallery

All rights reserved, except aspermitted under the CopyrightAct, no part of this publicationmay be reproduced by anyprocess, electronic or otherwise,without permission in writingfrom the publisher and authors.Neither may information bestored electronically in anyform whatsoever without suchpermission.

Acknowledgements andthanks from the curator

Many people have assisted thisproject including the artists andthe staff at Tamworth RegionalGallery, Brian Langer, MegLarkin, Paul Thompson Art onthe Move WA, Holly Story,Liz Williamson, Sara TwiggPatterson Arts Coordinator,Tjala Arts, Amata AnanguPitjantjatjara Lands SA,TimHill, Manager and Angela HillArt Coordinator,Tiwi DesignWinnellie, NT, AnnetteSeeman, Curtin University,Mary Jose Textile Conservatorat The Fabric of Life inAdelaide, Stephanie Radok,John Cruthers, Lyn Mitchelland local craft councils.

Tamworth Regional Gallery

Level 2, 466 Peel StreetTamworth, NSW

PO BOX 555,Tamworth,NSW, 2340

T: (+61) (+02) 6767 5459

F: (+61) (+02) 6767 5261

[email protected]

www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au

Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5pm Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Admission to the Gallery is free.

Tamworth Regional Gallery is a public art museum, part ofan extensive network ofregional galleries throughoutAustralia. It provides a culturaland educational resource forTamworth and the surroundingregion through a distinctiveprogram of changing exhibi-tions, public programs andassociated activities.

The Gallery is known for itsfibre textile collection of trad-itional and contemporaryworks by many of Australia'sleading fibre textile artists andthe Tamworth Fibre TextileBiennial. During the past 23years the continuing develop-ment and touring of Biennialshas provided a sustained focuson the finest and most explor-atory aspects of Australiantextile practice.

2

This catalogue is published byTamworth Regional Galleryfor the exhibition In the

World: head, hand, heart - 17th Tamworth FibreTextile Biennial at TamworthRegional Gallery 9 Septemberto 5 November 2006 andtouring during 2007 and 2008.

Artspace Mackay Mackay, Queensland 18 March - 29 April 2007

Gippsland Art Gallery Sale,Victoria 13 July - 19 August 2007

Mosman Gallery Mosman, NSW 2 September - 14 October2007

Gold Coast City Art Gallery Surfers Paradise, Qld 8 December 2007 - 10 February 2008

The Anne and GordonSamstag Museum of ArtUniversity of SouthAustralia Adelaide, SA 20 June - 3 August 2008

Swan Hill Regional ArtGallery Swan Hill,Victoria 29 August - 12 October 2008

Orange Regional Gallery Orange, NSW 31 October - 14 December2008

The exhibition has been assistedby the Tamworth RegionalCouncil, the Australia Councilfor the Arts, the NSWGovernment through ArtsNSW, and Visions of Australia,an Australian Governmentprogram supporting touringexhibitions by providingfunding assistance for the devel-opment and touring of culturalmaterial across Australia.

Tamworth Regional Gallery isproud to present In the World:head, hand, heart - 17thTamworth Fibre TextileBiennial.The Exhibitioncontinues the tradition,begun in the early 1980s,of exploring innovation andstimulating debate about thediverse nature of contempor-ary fibre textile practice inAustralia. Since its inception,the Biennial has grown tobecome a curated exhibitionthat is recognised nationallyas the pre-eminent textileexhibition.

The Biennial aims to includecultural diversity and criticalwriting about textile practicethat explores changingapproaches to the fibre textilemedium. Participating artistshave been selected from acrossthe country.They work in avariety of art, craft and designpractices located in urban andregional areas. Following itsopening in Tamworth, thenational tour will visit sevengalleries in four states.

In the World: head, hand,heart - 17th TamworthFibre Textile Biennial hasbeen curated by Adelaide-based curator VivonneThwaites.The catalogue essayby the curator reflects thecuratorial rationale andintegrity of the exhibitionand gives important insightsinto the careful selection andinclusion of the participatingartists’ works.

Tamworth Regional Councilhas been pleased to provideits support for the 17thTamworth Fibre TextileBiennial.The project is amajor one for our Galleryand continues to identifyTamworth as an activecontributor to, and benefici-ary of, the range and diversityof exciting and challengingtouring exhibitions thatoriginate in national, stateand regional galleries acrossthe nation.

Council acknowledges, withgratitude, the support of theAustralia Council for theArts, Arts NSW, and Visionsof Australia for their supportin the development of theexhibition and the nationaltour. Council also thanks thepeople who have broughtthis exhibition together,particularly VivonneThwaites, curator; StephanieRadok, catalogue editor; LynMitchell, catalogue designer;Tamworth Regional Gallerystaff; and all the superb artistswho have contributed theirideas, their art, and their craft.

I trust that In the World:head, hand, heart - 17thTamworth Fibre TextileBiennial will inspire, delight,challenge and provokeaudiences in Tamworth andacross the nation as it toursfor the next two years.

James TreloarMayorTamworth Regional Council

3

Int roduc t ion

In the Wor ld: head, hand, hear t - 17TH TAMWORTH FIBRE TEXTILE BIENNIAL

They are part of every person’severyday experience, and manyof us have had the pleasure ofmaking clothes and householditems for our own use.

This familiarity, and their longshared history with people, iswhat makes textiles such aneffective medium for artists.The fact that they are rootedin the everyday gives them atremendous advantage. Peopleare not overawed by them inthe way they might be bypainting, photo-media orcomputer-generated artforms.

1 Irmina van Niele, Ambivalent Belonging,

PhD Thesis, University of South

Australia, 2005, p.43.

2 Paul Carter, Living in a New Country,

Faber and Faber, UK, 1992, p.7.

The feeling Paul Carter andIrmina Van Niele refer to isone we have probably allexperienced over the lastdecade. So rapidly have allaspects of human lifechanged that even as wemaster new technologies,even newer ones appear.

Art and artists have had toface the same changes, andthe same challenges.Traditional artistic media areanalogue, human-scaled andrefined through hundreds ofyears of practice.They havedepended on the developedapplication of head, hand andheart - the intellectual andthe physical manipulation ofthe media in which the artistworked - harnessed to comm-unicate not only information,but to connect with others atprofound emotional levels.

In less than a generationsome old media have givenway to digital technologies -the computer, the internetand the world wide web.Communication has certainlybeen facilitated, but artists havestruggled to develop meaning-ful ways of using thesetechnologies to make art.

Textiles are the oldest andmost ubiquitous of humanity’sexpressive media.Textileshave been essential to humanexistence to cover the body,for warmth and for shelter.

4

WE ARE ALMOST

ALL MIGRANTS; EVEN

IF WE HAVE TRIED

TO STAY AT HOME,

THE CONDITIONS OF

LIFE HAVE CHANGED

SO UTTERLY IN THIS

CENTURY THAT WE

FIND OURSELVES

STRANGERS IN OUR

OLD HOUSE.2

I KNOW WHERE

I COME FROM

BUT WHERE DO

I BELONG? 1

Collection Liz Williamson

Floral handkerchief

darned by my mother

Joan Margaret Williamson

during the 1970s

cotton and linen

dimensions variable

Photo: Michal Kluvanek

5In selecting works for In theWorld - head, hand, heart I havestrived to show the variety ofways in which artists haveused fibre/textiles to engagewith contemporary concerns.The works address themes as diverse as individuality and identity politics, belong-ing and our place in theworld, gender and sexuality,the environment and theincreasing insularity anddisconnectedness of muchcontemporary life.


Trousers and tea towel

darned and repaired by my mother


during the 1970s

cotton and linen

dimensions variable


Contemporary artists haveused the intimacy and famil-iarity of textiles to makesome of Australia’s mostinteresting recent art.I mention in relation to thisBiennial Narelle Jubelin’sdelicate petit point embroi-dery which recontextualisessome of the key images ofAustralia’s pioneering past inthe light of feminist andpost-colonial ideas; RobertMacPherson’s use of foundfabrics such as ginghamtablecloths and disposal storeblankets, over-printed withslang terms, to comment onthe disappearance of vernacu-lar language and by extensionthe dangers of our culturebecoming globalised; andRaquel Ormella’s sewnbanners and soft sculptureswhich allude to the appeal of‘home’, while addressingissues of urban redevelopmentand ensuing homelessness.

Jean Baptiste Apuatimi and Osmond Kantillademonstrate the contempo-raneity of Indigenous culturalwork at Tiwi.The purposebuilt textile printing work-shop at Tiwi Design is run byOsmond Kantilla, a masterprinter with over 20 yearspractical experience. Osmondsupervises the translation oforiginal artworks onto screensand manages the productionof hand-printed fabrics.He has worked at RedbackGraphics and Boomali andtravelled extensively pursuingnew designs.The Jilamaradesign by Jean BaptisteApuatimi at Tiwi is derivedfrom body painting.

Bede Tungatalem’sPukamani design preparedwith collaborators Ray Youngand Harold Pukulari, is thedominant image remainingon the exhibited print tablecloth cover. Layers of designscan be seen on this thicklymatted cloth from the Tiwiprint workshop. No stitchingis visible on NaomiKantjuri’s emu feather shoesand baskets and so theyappear to float on the redlandscape of Central Australiaat the homeplace of TjalaArts.The mukata or beanieshave been made at Ernabella(Pukatja) 440kms south westof Alice Springs by womenfrom Anangu PitjantjatjaraYankunytjatjara Lands.

Textiles have an uncannyknack of drawing in the realworld, this is one of theirmost engaging qualities.I wanted to fill the oftenrefined and carefully neutralspace of the contemporarygallery with some of theunruliness of everyday life.I hope people will bringtheir own experiences oftextiles into the gallery, andafter interacting with theworks, be inspired to producetheir own interesting,challenging and creativetextile-based work.

Most of all I hope theexhibition demonstrates howimportant it for us all that wecontinue being ‘human’towards one another, that wereach out to connect to thosearound us - in our familiesand communities. At thistime of massive social changesuch human connection hasbecome increasingly difficult.But frail, ordinary things liketextiles, with their freight ofhuman touch and humanfeelings, are both a reaching-out, and a reminder of ourhumanity.

Beth Hatton

As for man, his days are as grass...

(Wool Shears - Second Series) 2004

tussock grass, cordyline, linen thread

88 x 22 x 14

Photo: Ian Hobbs

©Beth Hatton 2004/Licensed by

VISCOPY, Sydney 2006

Bede Tungatalem

Tiwi print table cover (reverse)

Tiwi Design, 1988

Pukumani design collaborators

Ray Young and Harold Pukulari

main design Pukumani

5 metres

Collection of Peter Tregilgas


7

Kay Lawrence

No work for a white man (detail) 2005

installation of wooden chair, blanket

undertrousers, photograph

dimensions variable


Julie Gough

Black crows (shells) strung into twined

lomandra longifolia (detail) 2003

Photo: Julie Gough

Ernabella is the oldest perm-anent settlement on AnanguPitjantjatjara Lands in theremote north west of SouthAustralia.When the artcentre at Ernabella began in1948 thread was spun usingthe traditional Pitjantjatjaraspindle.Today the artists usethe same technique to makethe thread for the mukata andinclude dyed emu feathers,ininti seeds and commercialyarns.

Wilma Walker (NgadijinaBabimilbirrja) is a traditionalowner for the Mossman areaof far north Queensland andtwines black palm and lawyercane to make dilly bags(ngakan) reminiscent of thosein which children werehidden during mission times.

Julie Gough’s canoe isconstructed with blankets,plastic, wire, wool and shells,and references the Frenchartists Lesueur and Petit’s1807 image Terre de Diemen,navigation, vue de la côte orien-tale de l’Ile Schouten injournals kept during Baudin’searly voyages aroundAustralia.The shells havebeen collected from beachesin Tasmania, her homeplace.Raised slightly off the flooron tea tree sticks, the workappears to float betweenworlds.The artist sees thecanoe in relation to journeysbeyond the material world.

To draw attention to the useof blankets in this exhibition,they were significant items inthe early days of settlement.Governor King, Sydney,NSW, 21 August 1801 notedthe need to manufactureblankets in the early days ofcolonisation: ‘Most of thepeople who came out herelast, and those here before,are totally destitute ofblankets, or any bedding.’A blanket was a valuable item.Both King and Baudin left anextensive number of lettersexpressing their concern aboutthe treatment of Indigenouspeople in Australia.

Sandy Elverd

Numbers Count (detail) 2005

woollen blankets, eucalypt dyes

red woollen thread

blanket roll 16 metres


Sandy Elverd’s NumbersCount refers to the blanket in the early days of settle-ment and comments on itsuse to record numbers ofIndigenous people at missionsites. It was one item that wasgiven to each Indigenousperson on arrival at themission. Her work is con-structed with blankets whichhave been dyed witheucalyptus leaves, and thebark and flowers of differentIndigenous plant species.

Petra Meer, although born inAustralia, is able to conveysomething of the migrantexperience of her parents.Inherited iconography ofEuropean origin remains inher subconscious and slipsthrough in her forms. Madeentirely with recycled fabricsand materials, these works arealso tokens to the communityof ‘unknown others’, thosepiecing together culturalidentities of their own.

Chris De Rosa’s work is atribute to her Auntie (ZiaLucia) who was a migrantfrom Italy to Australia. Likethe rose cutting she smuggledinto the country hidden inher blouse she became one ofSouth Australia’s icons. Sheretained her accent andalways remained a kind ofoutsider, offering her knowl-edge about plants and foodto an ever-growing apprecia-tive Australian audience.On one level Transplant 2005,constructed with fabric andpaper imprinted withimagery, is a quilt, a series ofindividual squares each withits own discrete story, onanother level, the squaresstitched together form a newnarrative.The work is ametaphor for other internaljourneys.

Sophie Morris manipulatesplain grey/black blanket,felting and matting it until it becomes a material that is sculptural, malleable intothree dimensional forms.The woollen blanket folds,contracts, collapses, expandsand responds to gravity andtension.

Barbie Greenshields’ Sloughlies like a cast-off skin on theweathered boards of her WestCoast home. Made with stiff-ened and worn grey blanketsreminiscent of childhoodbedtimes, the artist conflatesthe ideas of comfort andconfinement in this work.

Other textile works discussthe landscape and our historyupon it. CatherineGrundy’s intricate laid fabricappliqué and Braziliandimensional embroidery instranded cotton on satinbegin a discussion about herrelationship with her fatherand the landscapes of theFlinders Ranges and theCoorong remembered fromher past. She has masteredher techniques and is able toemploy them to give voice toher concerns about theenvironment. Beth Hattonconstructs representations oftools with native tussockgrasses and introduced plantssuch as cordyline, using anAboriginal stitchingtechnique. Redolent withmemories of the Australianoutback, the works express avulnerability to the forces ofnature.The tool shapes arepresented as if unravelling,suggesting impermanenceand decay. A masterly controlof materials is demonstratedin works by Susan Mader.Susan grew up in farmingcountry in Western Australiaand much of her connectionto place derives from whathas been caught in hermemory through tasks assoc-iated with farm management.Opened-out hessian bags,hand-stitched with jute,coated with lime and titledWorking the fallow, Fallowingand Oats and barley convey apoignant sense of the earth inthat place.

Barbie Greenshields

Slough (detail) 2005

woollen blankets, thread

2 x 1.4 m

Photo: Warren Bellette

Sophie Morris

Envelope 2005

felt and darn

dimensions variable

Photo: Margaret Morris

Model: Sophie Morris

Michelle Nikou’s Grey Gulfcasts an overall droll distill-ation on the domesticordinariness of real life, ofawkward interpersonaldialogue, of grim loyalty, ofsilent moments betweenpeople.The works are labor-iously made of tapestry.Themonotony and repetitivenessof the daily rituals of life arestrongly evoked. From anothervantage point Michelle isasking the viewer to considerthese everyday objects inrelation to one another, as agroup of odd forms, classifiedand categorised.

Rosemary Whitehead’scelebration of the rag rug is aptly partnered with awooden clotheshorse.Thepoem etched into the woodof the rack makes the viewerreconsider the medium of therag rug.

9

Toby Richardson collectsold and used mattressesduring council hard rubbishdays. Unknown, Brooklyn Park5032 is an almost life-sizedrepresentation of a onceglorious gold mattress,photographed in such detailthat we see each thread.Themattress is now torn andweathered, stained from yearsof use.The work has a regalaura but a deposed grandeur.

Irmina van Niele knitswith recycled plastic bags.One of the five elements inthe work titled Carrying lossis an amalgam of child’ssinglet and bag, here past,present and future intertwine,are knitted together. Herworks are part of an investi-gation about human belong-ing in the world and theexperience of displacement.

Liz Williamson draws inspi-ration from the raw materialof darned items resonant withmemories - the work trousers,the floral hanky, the sweaterand tea towel - each lovinglydarned.These items couldhave been thrown away andsociety today would wonderat the care and attention ofthese ‘mends’, Liz then drawson her highly developedweaving skills to depict andcelebrate each darn taking anartist’s view of the wonderfulabstract qualities of the darns.

Holly Story

Heritage (salt rising) (detail) 2006

found blanket, plant dye, salt and

acrylic binder medium

160 x 145 cm, diptych

Photo: Victor France

Michelle Nikou

Grey Gulf (detail) 1997-2002

12 elements

mixed material, dimensions variable


Nalda Searles is a master ofmaking use of found items -in this instance, shells andragged towels. Her lifetime of working in country andengaging with Indigenousartists easily speaks throughthis work.

Aadje Bruce recycles andreuses found items from thereal world, knitting shoelaces,string, gift wrapping ribbon,wool, ‘relics of usage thatdocument living physicalexperience’ as John Stringerhas aptly put it, into onework.There is no sense thatthe artist needs to take refugein the subtle nuances oraesthetic qualities of agedmaterials. Rather she makesminimal interventions intothe materials in this instanceknitting together discardedmaterials. On one level thework offers a homage to allthose lovingly knitted rugs,quilts and household itemsand on another level thereare connections to abstraction.

Ilka White has recentlyspent considerable time insome of Australia’s moredesolate places, collecting,drawing and experiencingthe environments.Thiscollection of works alludes to experiences at ShorehamBeach, where grasses andshells were collected, and atNewhaven Reserve near theedge of the Tanami Desert,where spinifex, salt bush andmulga grow.The artistcollected red batswing coralseeds, budgerigar feathers andother natural materials withwhich to construct her works.

The pearl shell buttons usedto adorn the clothes ofordinary people were theproduct of an industry builton the labour of Chinese,Japanese, Koepanger, Malayand Manilamen, at a timewhen the White Australiapolicy discriminated againstAsian immigration in an effortto keep Australia 'white'.

Holly Story’s Heritage (saltrising) employs the image of a19th century fan marked outwith salt mixed with amedium. Its design alludes tothe patina of salt across theland and acts as a metaphorfor the legacy of Europeansettlement. Plants gatheredfrom the south of WesternAustralia are cooked up fordyes to imbue the work witha sense of place.The artistnotes that there are plantsand animals that have adaptedto live in the natural saltlakes in the Great Southerndistrict of Western Australiabut we are changing thebalance too fast and too farfor natural adaptation to keepup.The artist sees the blanketas a reference to humandomestic comfort and securi-ty as well as a metaphor forthe ‘skin’ of the land, onwhich our ultimate securityand well-being depends.

Vivonne ThwaitesMay 2006

Glenys Hodgeman marksout the intricate design ofWillow Pattern on a teapotwith pin pricks through film,tracing lines reminiscent oflace.The work speaks of theritual of tea, the arts ofsewing and the illuminationthese skills offer us about thesignificance of women’s lives.

Helen Fuller’s dexterousability to use all manner ofmaterials sees her tuggingand pulling rags throughholes, incorporating commonpins and plastic baskets intoher work.The artist makesclear and succinct contempo-rary statements about thestate of the art world and herplace in it. Her work drawsout the significance andmeaning of her strugglebetween painting and making- the letters P-A-I-N-(T) -constructed with rags andpins, plastic bags and ribbonsappear to weep at the artist’sstruggle. Pushing the ragsthrough the holes, forcing thehand to paint, adapting the‘womanly skills’ of workingwith rags to working withpaint.

Susanna Castelden uses thefolds of work shirts to give asense of the topography of thelandscape of the mining townsof north-western Australia aswell as a sense of the individualworkers’ presence in the place.

Australian attitudes toward Asiaare examined in the work byKay Lawrence, titled Nowork for a white man. Pearlshell buttons are used as bothmaterial and metaphor tomake reference to the exploit-ative nature of the pearl shellindustry. Prior to World WarII, 80% of the world's pearlshell came from 400 luggersworking out of Broome.

Catherine Grundy

Show me some wildflowers (detail)

2006

surface stitchery and appliqué on linen,

Brazilian dimensional embroidery,

rayon thread on polyviscose

diameter 28 cm


Susanna Castleden

Abandoned (detail) 2005

embroidered work shirts

on folding camp table

75 x 102 x 85 cm

Photo: Robert Frith

11

The Ar t i s t s - 17TH TAMWORTH FIBRE TEXTILE BIENNIAL

Jilamara (body painting design)

(detail)1999

lightweight cotton and permaset

fabric inks

400 x 105 cm


12

JEAN BAPTISTE

APUATIMI

(Jeannie) SKIN

JAPAJAPUNGA

(March f ly) DANCE

MARLAWU

(buff a lo) COUNTRY

TIWI

I love my painting, I love doing it.My husband, Declan Apuatimitaught me to paint.The designs areones he taught me - he said ‘Oneday you will be an artist - you willtake my place.’ Now I am doingthat. Painting makes me alive.

13

AADJE BRUCE

Never, never, never give up 2005

knitted recycled wool, old

shoelaces, gift wrapping, string, etc.

120.5 x 165.5 x 10 cm (framed)


I grew up during the Second WorldWar. I was 12 when it was finished.During the last two winters we hadno gas, no electricity and no water.Those winters were harsh, lengthy,freezing and snowy.We scroungedfor wood, twigs, little coals from therailway track.We had a tiny stovein which we burnt all that to helpus keep warm and to cook.Wecollected and kept EVERYTHINGuseful.We unravelled old clothes andjumpers to remodel or reknit them.

I have for years and years kept anypiece of string, rope, shoelace,ribbon, twine and thread.

My grandmother was the one whoknitted. She knitted strange inven-tive garments that we loved towear.When they wore out shewould take them apart and remake.

For her I have knotted together allthe knittable material I have everfound and possessed. I initiallyknitted them all together into threepieces, then I knitted those into awhole for the strange texture andthe juxtaposition of materials andcolours.

SUSANNA

CASTLEDEN

14

Abandoned (detail) 2005

embroidered work shirts on folding

camp table

75 x 102 x 85 cm

Photo: Robert Frith

I wanted this work to describe ashort history of an area of WesternAustralia by taking the form of amap. It is only a short history, themap, the names and the materialsare all imported layers on a landthat has a much longer history.

In the desire to colonise the north,and the demand for workers tomine the resource of Wittenoom,many of the workers wereimmigrants from post-war Europewho brought new names andcultures to the landscape. Nearly7,000 Italian,Yugoslavian, Polish,Spanish, Greek, Dutch andHungarian lives were drawn to themills of Wittenoom.The mills haveclosed and the town is now officiallyabandoned.

In this work, the imported andforeign names of places andworkers are embroidered onto thepockets of work shirts - ubiquitous,utilitarian, hard yakka, workingshirts.The shirts are folded andarranged on a fold-out camp tablein a grid-like formation thatmimics the longitude and latitudelines on a map.

The table is perhaps the centralpart of this work, it is a transientobject that can be packed away andmoved on once it has been used.It does the job. It can relocate easily,pack up, fold away, be tucked away,and left alone until it might beneeded again, perhaps never.

15

CHRIS DE ROSA

Transplant (detail) 2006

fabric, paper, etching, linocut, digital

inkjet, embossing, blanket

140 x 115 cm


This work stems from research intonative and introduced flora and itsrelationship to the idea of the re-planted individual. On one levelthe work is a tribute to my Auntie(Zia Lucia) who came as a youngwoman to a strange, dry, stony placefrom a fertile land and with littlenurturing took root and flourished.

On another level the work is aquilt, a series of individual squareseach with its own discrete storystitched together to form a newnarrative.

Although ostensibly my Aunty’sstory, the narrative of the work isalso a kind of metaphor for otherinternal journeys.The work (story)is both layered and open-ended;the quilt could be unstitched orfurther chapters to the narrativecould be added later.

16

SANDY ELVERD

Numbers Count 2005

woollen blankets, eucalypt dyes,

red woollen thread



My work is an exploration oflandscape and history, utilising andresponding to the materials avail-able from the land. Uncovering thelayers, the shadow and the lightand broadening an understandingof place. Blankets carry history.Worn, patched, family blankets,blankets used for trade, blanketsrelating to journey, for warmth,protection and security. Blanketstories relate to colonisation, migra-tion and refugees. Multiple threadsof meaning are found in blankets.

I created ‘Numbers Count’ fromblankets which have been dyed ineucalypt dyes; bark, leaves andflowers of different native plantspecies.The dyed blankets have beencut into strips and stitched togetherwith red woollen thread, blanketstitch along the edges and joins,chain stitch for the repetitive motifwhich represents counting.

In traditional life many suchstories were often told as ‘milpatju-nanyi’ - telling stories in the sand.

(Notes by Merran Hughes,co-ordinator and founder of theBeanie Festival)

17

Malpiya Davey

Flash beanie 2005

commercial yarn, beads

and emu feathers

Photo: Lou Farina

ERNABELLA

ARTISTS

The Alice Springs Beanie Festivalbegan in 1996 with a ‘beanieparty’ which was organized to sellbeanies (mukata-the Pitjatjantjaraword for beanie) made byIndigenous women at crochetworkshops conducted in remotecommunities. Ernabella Arts Incentered the Alice Springs BeanieFestival for the first time in 2002.The Festival’s aims have alwaysbeen to showcase Indigenouswomen’s textiles, to develop thebeanie as a regional art form andto celebrate textile arts, traditionallywomen’s domain.

In 2004 the artists made flocks of‘birds’ (‘tjulputjara’) beanies likebirds, or in bush parlance, ‘A Mobof Mukata’. Stories (‘Tjukurpa’)about beings from Creation timesoften have birds as leading figures.

18

HELEN FULLER

PAINT rags 2006

plastic baskets, recycled rags

polyester ribbon, safety pins

dimensions variable


The melt and fall of the ribbon isa bit like silent streams of tears...or to be practical, anchor the raginto each cell of the plastic grid.The ‘T’ shifts the word ‘pain’ toPAINT and so the golden pinscelebrate my return to a paintingpractice with auspicious red ribbon.

The work alludes to a strangemarriage of art as therapy/shopping as therapy in an attemptto find meaningfulness in thepractice of life in 2006. ‘No painno gain’, said my Mother…whendrinking tea, pain is sometimesdissipated. Sometimes goingshopping can do the same.

Memory: bandages, handkerchiefs,and doll’s clothes were fashionedfrom Mum’s ragbag which lay onthe floor of the linen cupboard.The ragbag held hacked, mutilatedgarments and failed sewing projectsto magpie from.

Here the rags are pulled throughthe plastic grid to form pixillatedRoman letters P-A-I-N-(T).Theblack ant-like safety pins bitethrough the rag and pin the finelines of feminine (pink) ribbon…

Navigator 2006

blankets, shells, wire, plastic

wool, string

27 x 53 x 285 cm

Photo: Clive Hutchison

Historical image: Terre de Diemen,

navigation, vue de la côte orientale de

l'Ile Schouten, Plate XIV from Lesueur

et Petit, Voyage de découvertes aux

Terres Australes exécuté par ordre de

S.M. l'Empereur et Roi, Atlas (Paris,

1807). Reproduced courtesy

TASMANIANA LIBRARY,

State Library of Tasmania.

Addition: 2005 by Julie Gough

acrylic on paper

Gough’s maternal affiliation is tothe Trawlwoolway people whosecountry ranges across the far northeastern corner of Tasmania.Todaymany of Gough’s family live in theDevonport region but for Gough,the North East, or Tebrikunna,remains her ‘homeland’.

Julie’s art and research practiceinvolves uncovering and re-present-ing historical stories. Much of herwork refers to her and her family’sexperiences as TasmanianAboriginal people and is concernedwith developing a visual languageto express and engage withconflicting and subsumed histories.

An expression of memorial to our(Tasmanian Aboriginal) OldPeople, ‘Navigator’ physicallyrenders the journey through timewe all make in passing.Whetherby underworld, river crossing orstar system this canoe is areminder of the various beliefsystems that have provided a senseof comfort and direction for beingand belonging.These craft bestpresent my preoccupation withrecreating passages and spacesbeyond the material realm.

I made this work to honour theproximity of life, culture, memory,particular places in Tasmania andthe past in my present.

19

JULIE GOUGH

I stitched myself into a blanket.An old grey blanket I'd found in the back shed at my studio.Theyhad been there for a while, stiffenedinto their folded shape, stained byrain and rodents.This style of greywoollen blanket kept me, as a child,warm at night.As winter progressedmy bed coverings became heavier,and the weight was reassuring.Consequently, weight soothes andold grey blankets are, to me, a signof security and comfort.

I shook and aired one blanket.The process of its transformationbegan. I cut it into various sizedstrips and squares. Placed, wound,and fitted the pieces onto my bodyand stitched them together, intend-ing to gain as much detail aspossible.

20

BARBIE

GREENSHIELDS

The construction progressedsegment by segment: shrouding abody part, leaving enough of anopening so as to remove that bodypart, stitching up the opening tothe correct size, then attaching it tothe whole.The only orifice is a gapin the lower back, its edges areragged pieces, the single location ofexchange between the inside andthe outside.

As I stitched, I knew my makingwent beyond the realm of clothing.The meaning of my activity wentbeyond the functional into theuncanny: preparing my own bodyfor oblivion. Or was I - in a morebenign tone - making a surrogateskin, a skin of sleep?

Then a year or so later, my treas-ured dog became ill. Her illnessimposed upon me the inevitabilityof her passing. So I stitched herinto an old grey blanket as well.Afternoons spent in the sun on thefront veranda, the smell of warmdog filling my nostrils. In a tacitbond of complete trust, she snoozedwhile I placed and fitted the piecesof blanket. Now what I have madeis a kind of eulogy, a homage toNoodles.

Slough 2005


2 x 1.4 m

Photo: Warren Bellette

The embroidery techniques I preferto employ are those that producedimensional results, which are verytactile in nature. I like to bend oreven break the traditional rulesconcerning thread and needle typesand fabric used for specifictechniques.The Brazilian dimen-sional embroidery is a particularfavourite because the use of thebrightly coloured viscose threadsand large needles leads you toalmost be knitting and weavingthe design instead of stitching.

Both my grandmothers weregardeners and it was from theirlove of flowers that I developed myinterest. My interest in embroideryalso stems from the influence of thewomen in my family. As bothgrandmothers crocheted andembroidered I was encouraged byMum to stitch patterns on cardwith wool and a darning needlefrom about the age of four.

As a small child I would spend alot of time drawing trees andflowers. I would admire my father’sbeautiful copperplate script in hissketchbook and his pencil drawingsof botanical specimens andanimals. Often I would ask: ‘Drawme a gum tree’ and with thisinspiration I drew many gum trees.By the time I reached the end ofprimary school I was nicknamed‘Hans Heysen’.

Currently I am interested inconservation of indigenous floraand fauna with particular referenceto the Murray River Gums whichare threatened due to lack ofseasonal flooding and the silting of the Murray Mouth.This alsocreates threats to the wildlife of theCoorong.

21

Draw me a gumtree

(River Murray Gums) 2006

Stumpwork, stranded cotton on satin

diameter 30 cm


CATHERINE

GRUNDY

‘As for man, his days are as grass:as a flower of the field, so he flour-isheth. For the wind passeth overit, and it is gone; and the placethereof shall know it no more’.Psalm 103

Many of the tools of colonialAustralia are now redundant, andcan be found in rusty heaps incountry junk shops. Once indis-pensable in the struggle to shapewilderness into farms, today theyevoke a more complicated responseto the ingenuity of their forms, thehard labour which they representand the damage which they did tothe land.

Tools facilitated changes in theenvironment rebounding upon theearly settlers. For example, inareas cleared of native trees andshrubs, hunters could no longerhide close to their prey. So, by thelate 19th century, the traditionalKangaroo Rifle, with its limitedrange and single-shot action, wassuperseded by the WinchesterRepeater.

Sometimes the forces unleashedmoved quickly beyond control, aswith the Tasmanian Tiger. Devicesfor its eradication, especially guns,proved all too effective, and it nowseems clear that the last specimendied in the 1930s. Today an oldTrap evokes a sense of loss.

We are subject to the same process-es of natural and artificial selectionthat caused the disappearance of somany native species. There is aconstant need to adapt and developnew tools and strategies to survivein our changing environment.All elements of our world areinterdependent, inextricably linkedto each other.

22

BETH HATTON


(Tasmanian Tiger Trap) 2003


wood

30 x 180 x 31 cm

Photo: Ian Hobbs

©Beth Hatton 2003/Licensed by

VISCOPY, Sydney 2006

In modern society the 'gift' and theact of giving and receiving gifts isone of the most potent means bywhich individuals attach to oneanother and unite as communities.All the more formidible is that the‘gift’ and gift-giving are ingrainedin every society.

I am intrigued by the conflictingideas of self interest and altruismthat operate within the world ofgift-giving - particularly issuesrelating to the motivation andattachment of individuals whichassert gift-giving as a powerfulindicator of feelings and the creatorof memories and personal histories.

‘Blew Willow - Gift Tease’ address-es the frailty and vulnerability thatsurround the act of gift-giving.

The image is of a naked woman -hands outstretched. (Is she waitingto give or waiting to receive?) Herbody wrapped like a gift in skin isholding a teapot that, using thepergamano technique, has beenpricked through the film so thatlight pours out from the pinholes.

The Blue Willow pattern is loadedwith notions of appropriation ofheritage and forbidden acts ofdesire, lust and envy.The everydayobject (teapot) and the domestic actof tea-making is addressed as aritual steeped in tradition thatbinds people - to share a momentor a lifetime together.

Blew Willow - Gift Tease 2006

90 x 70 x 12 cm

photo projection – pergamano image


23

GLENYS

HODGEMAN

Pandanus Design (detail) 1986

cotton drill and permaset fabric ink

4000 x 115 cm


24

OSMOND

KANTILLA

SKIN

STONE

DANCE

PIG

COUNTRY

TIWI

Osmond Kantilla is a masterprinter with over 20 years practicalexperience of printing textiles atTiwi Design. Osmond supervisesthe translation of artworks ontoscreens and manages the productionof hand-printed fabrics.Throughhand-cutting and painting stencils,Tiwi Design artists transfer originalartwork onto silk screens to produceprinted textiles.Transferring theintricate designs onto the largeformat screens takes skill andpatience. Osmond received FirstPrize in the QueenslandIndigenous Momento Award forScreen Printing in both 2005 and2004. Osmond has attended andrun many workshops since 1985and in 1986 was artist inresidence at Redback Graphics inSydney.

NAOMI

KANTJURI

LANGUAGE

PITJANTJATJARA

COMMUNITY

AMATA

REGION ANANGU

PITJANTJATJARA

LANDS

Mother ’s Count ryWinge l l ina(White DogDreaming)Fathe r ’s Count ryKunumata ( I l i – Wild Fig )Dreaming I l i – Wild Fig

Naomi is a prolific painter whohas been working at Tjala Artssince 2001. An excellent hunter,basketmaker and woodcarver,Naomi took to painting withremarkable ease. She is recognisedfor her knowledge of the Tjukurpa(Stories) of the area and whilst she is a new and emerging artisther technique is well-developed.Naomi is also a Ngangkari (trad-itional healer). Ngangkari providetraditional healing treatments forthe mind, body and spirit.

The manager at Tjala Arts SaraTwigg Patterson comments: Naomiwas given about 2kgs of ‘wipiya’(emu feathers) to make a couple ofbaskets. She returned with twobaskets and this pair of shoes! She was probably inspired by hersister-in-law, Kantjupayi Benson,who is famous for her fibre sculp-tured objects. Everyone had a greatlaugh when Naomi brought theminto the art centre! I was told toput them on my feet to check forsize! The shoes are stitched togetherwith raffia.The emu feathers weresourced from Makin Emus,Queensland, a licensed dealer inemu products.Feather basket 2005

36 x 31 x 28 cm

emu feathers, raffia


25

No work for a white man 2005

installation of wooden chair, blanket


excerpt from Whitework 2005

dimensions variable


Model: Tadashi Nakamura

My recent work explores the legacy of white settler culture inAustralia, engaging with issues of‘whiteness’ and considering ‘anethics of decolonisation’ as putforward by Deborah Bird Rose.

I have been collecting pearl shellbuttons for a few years, with aninterest in the infinite variety oftheir simple functional forms andluminous colour. Some are thickcut, some wafer thin, the holesprecisely cut or hand drilled andoff centre.They can be heavy andcold in your hand or light, likeflakes of shimmering light. Manyretain bits of cloth and the threadused to sew them, while others arestill stitched in rows on card justas they were sold decades ago.

Through the buttons I becameinterested in the pearling industryin Broome and read ‘The WhiteDivers of Broome’ by John Bailey,a story about the development ofthe pearl industry through theexploitation of Indigenous andAsian labour, and an experimentin introducing white labour.

The work was dangerous andhundreds of men died, from beri-beri, from diver’s paralysis or fromdrowning.

To stay warm in their cumbersomediving suits as they collected shellin the deep cold waters off Broome,divers wore under-trouserssometimes made from old blankets.This pair of trousers covered withpearl buttons shimmers like thesea. Its weight would drag a mandown to his death rather thankeeping him warm.

26

KAY LAWRENCE

AM

The superphosphate came in densehessian bags which were gatheredupon the completion of cropping,methodically washed, unpicked andrestitched to size, then coated withlime to use as interior walls fortheir home.

This body of work is made withrecycled materials.The washedhessian bags are unpicked and re-stitched with the repetitiveness ofthis task reflecting the narrative ofunfolding family nurturing andcommitment, duty and responsibility,resilience and diversity.

It is to honor this silent place intime, remote and isolated, where the environment and nature mergewith the skills of the hand and the handmade.

Working the Fallow 2004/05

hessian bags, hand-stitched with jute,

coated with lime

59 x 225 cm

Photo: Jon Green

27

SUSAN MADER

My ‘Open Space’ series unfolds a story of man, intuitively andresourcefully working the land to make a home for his family.It reflects on memory, referencing a story of generational Germanmigration. It is about the integra-tion of earth, home and humanconditions in the mid 30s on 700 acres of virgin land in theGreat Southern region of WesternAustralia, where the family workedthe land, aided by horse-drawnploughs to sow crops of wheat,oats and barley, and spread super-phosphate.

Kreuz (Cross) 2004

Manch’ schöne Stunde birgt die

Einsamkeit...

(Loneliness holds many a beautiful

hour...)

Einsamkeit (Loneliness) - Selke

48 x 45 x 17.5 cm

reused coating fabrics, buttons,

cotton wadding, thread

Photo: Uffe Schulze

There are spaces between dominantcultures.They are inhabited bythose of us who do not have astrong and ongoing connection toour country of origin. Existing inthese spaces relies heavily onborrowing cultural identity fromothers and reusing small amountsof remembered cultural knowledge.

Often this is a temporary place toexist until we are able to piecetogether and re-establish ourconnection to our ‘own’ culture.But just as often we remain in thisisolated space.

These figurative forms carry storiesthat mark my search for culturalidentity as a first generationAustralian with German heritage.They are the first two works in aseries of four, where each work istied to the next with the lines of a short poem written by my grand-father, Robert Selke; a man I never knew.

Made entirely with recycled fabricsand materials, these pieces are also tokens to the community ofunknown others who are piecingtogether cultural identities of their own.

In ‘Kreuz’ (Cross) two opposingassociations of the swastika areplaced together.The wartimebuttons of brown, the red thread,the reused fabric and the swastikaare visual clues to stories of war,but the swastika is also representedhere as a symbol oriented in thecycles of life and universal forces;the seeding of plants and lives, theorbiting of planets around the sun.

References to war are countered by balancing images of life andgrowth; two worlds exist in onebody; the paradox of a life beinglived.

The titles of my works come from the words ofmy grandfather Robert Selke's poem 'Einsamkeit'(Loneliness) written around 1930-40.

EinsamkeitManch‚ schöne Stunde birgt die EinsamkeitFlüchte hinein, nimm mit Dein wahres Wesen!Und Deine Seele wird genesenIn dem Gedanken an die Ewigkeit

LonelinessLoneliness holds many a beautiful hourFlee into it, take with you your true being!And your soul will be healedIn the thought of eternity

28

PETRA MEER

I am interested in testing thepossibilities of wool, to expandvisual interest by minimal inter-vention.This series uses severalprocesses to create surface form andexplores the variations yielded by aparticular type of cut or fold.Constructed from woollen blanketsthe work reveals evidence ofcontraction and expansion andobserves how the materials respondto physical conditions of installa-tion, such as gravity and tension.I am attempting to develop formswhich are imperfect - possiblyeccentric, odd - to draw the viewer’scuriosity. My intention is to createan emotional response.

I intend for the viewer to be drawnto the object’s tangibility, and forthere to be a strong desire to touchits surface and feel its weight.Yet at the same time, I hope thatthe objects seem abstract, allusiveand indefinable.

Fold 2005

felt and darn

dimensions variable

Enclose 2005

3 elements

felt and darn, silk edgings

dimensions variable

Photo: Christoph Hoppen

29

SOPHIE MORRIS

Grey Gulf (detail) 1997-2002

12 elements

mixed material

dimensions variable


These works originated over severalyears, some as individual piecesand others belonging in pairs orsmall groups.They are, in simpleterms, a meditation on the greyzone - neither light nor dark, blackor white, happy or sad.The grey is a colour through which ‘things’(all things) are seen and the formsand text evoke a secondarymeaning.This work incorporatesthe habit of ‘covering’ - it is meantto be an underlying sub-text of thework, similar though different to itsemphasis in the works of Christo.

Imagination is the best tool forviewing these works, rememberingthey were not intended to meanany one thing to all people.

30

MICHELLE

NIKOU

I photograph the mattresses as theylie amongst the hard waste, andthen ask for permission from theowner(s) if I can take their mattressto my studio to photograph themwith my large format camera.Once the images are shot andscanned at a high resolution Iprint the mattresses at their actualsize on etching paper. More thanhalf of the sixty mattresses I haveshot come with a story from theirdonors, in many cases randomcomments made during a chat onthe doorstep.These narratives permitthe viewer entry to this body ofwork, and to consider one's own'mattress story' – because we allhave one.

There’s a saying that ‘one person’strash is another’s treasure’.

Throughout the year the suburbanstreets of Adelaide are littered withpeople’s unwanted goods awaitingtheir council’s hard waste collection.

I’m interested in everyday objectsand customs, my camera allows meto uncover their stories andmessages. For the past year thisdesire has seen me documentingpeople’s hard waste.

Unknown, Brooklyn Park 5032 2005

image size 170 x 130 cm

Giclée print on etching paper

from the series Singles, Couples

and Queens

Photo: Toby Richardson

31

TOBY

RICHARDSON

Littoral...Embrace... (detail) 2006

towelling, shells, stones, linen threads

147 x 107 cm

Photo: Nalda Searles

The processes of ageing, wearing,deterioration, shape changing,the endlessness of energy andmovement, the manner whereinorganic and inorganic intertwine,become as one and reinvent form.Perhaps on the ocean’s edge, thelittoral, this is most visible.Minutiae and discreet, stained and holed. Embracing gravity,washed over and singing throughworn paths, the Alchemist’s mirrorof salt and stone reflects my face.

32

NALDA SEARLES

‘Heritage (salt rising)’ refers to theissue of salinity, one of the greatestenvironmental threats facingWestern Australia’s agriculturalareas. Seen from the air, thepatterns of scalded land in thesouthern wheat belt reaching outfrom cleared watercourses andsoaks, are strangely beautiful - yet deadly. Not only is the landrendered useless for agriculture, butmost of the indigenous plants andanimals that evolved together inthose extreme places are gone, andsome are threatened with extinc-tion as increasingly their habitatsare lost. Despite warnings from theearliest settlers and from theNyoongar people that wholesaleclearing caused salt to rise, succes-sive government policies continuedto reward clearing for agriculture inmore and more marginal areas.

Lives have been lived and heartshave been broken as the salt keepsrising on the land.

‘Heritage (salt rising)’ employs theimage of a nineteenth century fanas a pattern for the patina of saltacross the land.

Plants gathered from the southwest of WA are cooked up for dyesto imbue the work with a sense ofplace. Using salt from natural saltlakes in the great Southern districtof WA attests to the adaptability ofecosystems over time.

The elements of my work aresparse, pared back to essentials, butchosen and placed - just so - tolead the viewer from a point offamiliarity to the contemplation oftheir own place in the world.Heritage (salt rising) (detail) 2006

found blanket, plant dye, salt

acrylic binder medium

160 x 145 cm, diptych

Photo: Victor France

33

HOLLY STORY

Tiwi print table cover (front detail) 1988

reverse is on page 6



main design Pukumani

5 metres



This print table cover waspurchased from the artist’s printworkshop table in late 1988 on a visit to the Melville Islands.

This fabric is from the workingenvironment of the Tiwi Designsilkscreen workshop. It shows themany layers of designs printed overthe years by Bede Tungatalem andothers. Each side of the cloth showsvarious designs. Pukamani is themain design showing. Pukumani isthe name of a Tiwi Mortuaryceremony involving many tradi-tional designs.

34

BEDE

TUNGATALEM

(AMPURUWAIUAH)SKIN

YARINAPINILA

(red ochre)LANGUAGE

TIWI

COUNTRY

MUNUPI

All my work investigates humanbelonging in the world, geographic,linguistic, cultural and psychological,including the experience of displace-ment and cultural ambivalence.Questions continually arise aroundnotions of transience, memories,loss and cultural baggage.

Since 2000, my material focus hasbeen increasingly on ubiquitouscultural ‘throw-outs’, or ‘leftovers’,including found, used, unwantedplastic supermarket bags. In thepresent reality of being in theworld, lost memories are every-where present in the superficialmaterial of indifferent massproduction, and felt as absence.

My construction techniques refer-ence skills acquired as a child inthe Netherlands, and ‘carriedacross’.They form part of my owncultural ‘baggage’ and are in asense ‘nomadic’.

Carrying Loss (five elements)

(detail) 2006

found plastic shopping bags

cut and knitted

total installation space 350 x 200 cm


35

IRMINA

VAN NIELE

Black Palm (ngakan) dilly bags (balji)

2005

twined hand woven black palm and

lawyer cane

various dimensions

Photo: Lou Farina

Wilma Walker is a senior tradition-al owner for the Mossman areaand a respected elder with a depthand breadth of cultural knowledge.She is one of a few seniorAboriginal women who continue totwine black palm baskets in thetraditional method. For many yearsWalker has promoted her culture,particularly with the teaching oftwining at TAFEs, Universitiesand schools

When she was a very young childWalker’s grandmother hid her in adilly bag when the policeman cameto take the children away.Subsequently her early childhoodremained more or less traditional,and she remembers the ‘missiontime’ when blankets and clotheswere distributed to Aboriginalfamilies gathered at the DaintreeMission at Mossman Gorge.Three of Wilma’s own childrenwere removed from her by missionauthorities when she was living at Daintree.

The ‘ngakan’ were used for foodcollection, storage, the leaching ofpoisons (from seeds) in freshrunning water and to carry person-al possess-ions. Larger versionslined with soft paperbark wereused to carry babies.

Wilma began to weave baskets asan adult drawing on her memoryof old times. She taught herselftraditional weaving techniques byremembering the baskets her familyused to make and her story aboutbeing hidden.

36

WILMA WALKER

(NGADIJ INA

BABIMILBIRRJA)LANGUAGE

GROUP

KUKU YALANJI

This land inspires reverence.It arrested and quieted me. All wassilent but the birds and the breeze.I lay in the sand drawing desertoak cones under the darkening skyand listening to the quietlymagnificent wind in theCasuarinas.That simultaneoushush and reverberation, the highand low thrum of desert breaththrough the jointed needles. I feltlike the earth was exhaling and Iwas truly breathing in the world.

These works come from time spenttruly in the world.They record thecoast and then the desert.The edgeand the centre.

Shoreham Beach is often coveredin dry sea grass. I walked the tideline collecting stems coated in thecalcium deposits of sea creatures.Then I sat under the cliff weavingand listening to the sea. In thestudio the sea grass joined withother treasures. Shell buttonscollected from my nannie’s buttontin, my grandma’s jars, the Muslimmarkets in old Delhi and op-shopsall over Victoria. I handspuntassels like seaweed or weatheredsailing rope caught in the rocks.To the precious materials I addedsilver leaf, silver disks and twigsmade with jeweller NickyHepburn.

In May 2005 I travelled to theedge of the Tanami Desert forBirds Australia to produce workabout Newhaven Reserve.

I looked out in awe over thespotted land. Spinifex, Salt Bushand Mulga on red-ochre soils.A great pattern in macrocosm.

In the mornings I braved the fliesand went out looking.There wereBudgerigar feathers in the litter oflost leaves by the camp. I foundsuperb contrast and richness every-where.White ghost gums againstthe rust range. Black crow againstthe round blue sky. Glossy redbats-wing coral seeds in the dust.Petrified insects in the stoppedswell of the still dry salt lake.There were little tracks betweenthe grasses all over the red dunesleft by small birds, hopping mice,bilbies, lizards, and snakes.

Desert Life (under, inside, all around…)

(detail) 2005/06

spinifex, budgerigar and other feathers,

thread, silk, paper, camel hair, cloth

installation dimensions variable

(components 3 – 10 cm in diameter)

Photo: Terence Bogue

37

ILKA WHITE

Head-dress: for my daughter 2001

wooden clotheshorses, text, textile

work knitted from natural and man-

made fabrics

395 x 85 cm

Photo: John Hollingshead

I think Sappho’s words aboutcolour, play, family and flowers stillring true in this world. Also I likemaking waves and magic carpets.This piece was a long time in themaking. I started knitting theedges when I was pregnant withmy daughter - incorporating oldschool uniforms, my mother'stights, scraps from first sewingprojects and remnants from thelocal dressmaker.

I discovered the poem when wemoved to Kangaroo Island toestablish a home, garden andstudio after many years of travel-ling.Then when my daughterdecided to leave home to go toschool at fourteen the central panelwas created to complete the pieceand mounted on the clotheshorses.

This poem was written by Sapphofor her daughter circa 600 BC.

My mother always said that in heryouth she was exceedingly infashion wearing a purple ribbonlooped in her hair. But the girlwhose hair is yellower than torch-light need wear no colorful ribbonsfrom Sardis but a garland of freshflowers.

(translation by William Barnstone,Greek Lyric Poetry, 1967)

38

ROSEMARY

WHITEHEAD

39

Floral

Domestic Damask series 2005

Jacquard woven textile

cotton and linen

66 x 70 cm

Sweater



cotton and linen

66 x 67 cm

Teatowel



cotton and linen

66 x 70 cm

All woven at Montreal Centre for

Contemporary Textiles, Canada

Photos: Ian Hobbs

‘Domestic Damask’ references thevarious layers embedded in domes-tic linens and textiles; the time,skill and ritual involved in theirmaking, embroidering, embellish-ment, storage, caring, use, cleaning,preparation, pressing and repair.Marks, stains, patches, repairs,stitches and darns transform theoriginal, overwhelming pattern tocreate another. Domestic textilesfrom historical collections and myfamily home are reinterpreted indamask weave structures withcontemporary Jacquard technologies.

Love, care, skill and patience are all recorded in both the making and repair.

LIZ WILLIAMSON

41

Lis t o f Works - 17TH TAMWORTH FIBRE TEXTILE BIENNIAL

Aadje BruceNever, never, never give up 2005

knitted recycled wool, old shoelaces,

gift wrapping, string, etc.

120.5 x 165.5 x 10 (framed)

1934 born Holland

1957 BA, Rietveld Academie,

Amsterdam

1990 BA, Curtin University, WA

1995 MA, Curtin University, WA

Recent Solo Exhibitions

1997 Repetition, Artplace, Perth

1996 Domestic Bliss, Artplace, Perth

Selected Recent Group Exhibitions

2003 BankWest Contemporary Art

Prize, PICA, WA

2002 Love Your Work: 30 Years of

Fremantle Arts Centre, WA

2001 Home is where the heart is,

University of South Australia

Art Museum and touring

1999 Rebirth: WA women celebrating

a century of change,

Moore’s Bldg, Perth

1997 Plastic Fantastic, Museum of

Contemporary Art, Sydney

1996 Adelaide Biennial of Australian

Art, Art Gallery of South

Australia

Out of Australia, PICA, WA

Collections

Art Gallery of WA, University of

WA, Edith Cowan University, Royal

Perth Hospital, Holmes à Court

collection, Bunbury Art Gallery,

Industrial Relations Court Australia,

Sir James and Lady Cruthers

Collection, Central Metropolitan

College of TAFE, Gomboc Gallery,

private collections in Holland, USA,

Indonesia and Australia

Chr i s De RosaTransplant 2006

fabric, paper, etching, linocut, digital

inkjet, embossing, blanket

140 x 115

1959 born Adelaide

South Australia

1982 Diploma, North Adelaide

School of Art


2005 Thingscapes, Adelaide Central

Gallery

2002 Panacea, Promenade Gallery,

Flinders Medical Centre

Recent Group Exhibitions

2006 One, Drill Hall, Pembroke

School Exhibition, Adelaide

2006 Calenture, Light Square

Gallery, AC Arts, Adelaide

2004 Open Borders, Penny’s Hill

Winery, McLaren Vale, SA

2004 Swan Hill Print and Drawing

Award, Swan Hill, Victoria

2003 Distant Voices, RMIT Gallery,

Melbourne

Collections

Whyalla City Council, private

collectionsAll images of artworks are copyright

of the artist and all works are collec-

tion of artist unless otherwise stated.

All measurements are height x length

x width in centimetres unless other-

wise stated.

Jean Bapt i s t eApuat imi ( Jeannie ) Jilamara (body painting design)1999

lightweight cotton and permaset

fabric inks

4000 x 105

1940 born Bathurst Island

Jean is the most renowned

fine artist at Tiwi Design on

Bathurst Island.


2006 Tenth Solo, Aboriginal and

Pacific Arts, Sydney

2005 Mirripaka Wings (Salty Water),

Raft Artspace, Darwin

2001 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne


2005 Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Fair,

Sydney

2003 Wangatunga Jilamara, Raft

Artspace, Darwin

Collections

Australian National Gallery, National

Australia Bank, Art Gallery of South

Australia, Museum of Victoria,

National Gallery of Victoria, Museum

and Art Gallery of the Northern

Territory, Artbank, Parliament House,

Canberra and other major collections42

Image page 40

Irmina Van Niele

Carrying loss (detail) 2006

found plastic shopping bags

cut and knitted

dimensions variable


SusannaCast l edenAbandoned 2005

embroidered work shirts on folding-

camp table

75 x 102 x 85

1968 born London, UK

1977 moved to Australia

2002 MA, Curtin University, WA

2003- Co-ordinator Printmedia,

2006 Department of Art,

Curtin University, WA


2004 Souvenir, Galerie Düsseldorf,

Perth

2003 Lexical Traversing, Fremantle

Arts Centre


2005 Art on Paper Award, Hazelhurst

Regional Gallery, NSW

2005 The Place Where Three Dreams

Cross, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart

2005 ShelfLife, Galerie Düsseldorf,

Perth

Collections

University of Western Australia,

Edith Cowan University, Royal Perth

Hospital, BankWest, City of

Fremantle, Artbank and others

Susanna Castleden is represented by

Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth

Sandy Elve rdNumbers Count 2005

woollen blankets, eucalypt dyes, red

woollen thread


1960 born Adelaide

South Australia

1993 BA, University of South

Australia

1998 Graduate Diploma,

Community Cultural

Development

2002 inaugural Camden Head Pilot

Station residency, NSW

2005 Helpmann Academy residency

at Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi

2006 BA, University of South

Australia


2002 Intertwine, Adelaide Festival

of Arts

2001 Weaving the Murray, Centenary

of Federation exhibition,

Art Gallery of South Australia

and Prospect Gallery

Ernabe l la Ar t i s t s Tjunkaya Tapaya

Balled crown mukata 2005

hand spun and commercial yarn

Mantaya

Emu feather top knot 2005

hand spun and commercial yarn, bead

Malpiya Davey

Mukata rikina/Flash beanie/Good for

lots of thick hair 2005

commercial yarn, beads and emu

feathers

Yilpi Marks

Mukata Papatjara/Puppy Beanie 2005

hand spun wool and ininti seeds

Nungalka Stanley

Bird Mukata 2005

hand spun yarn and ininti seeds

Malpiya Davey

Beanie Surprise 2005

hand spun and commercial yarn

Yilpi Adamson

Mukata 2005

hand spun and commercial yarn,

ininti seeds and dyed emu feathers

Nungalka Mukata

Lizard on top 2005

hand spun wool

Nungalka Stanley

Bird beanie/mukata tjulputjara 2005

hand spun and commercial yarn,

ininti seeds and dyed emu feathers

Tjunkaya Tapaya

Mukata rama rama/Crazy beanie

2005

commercial yarn

Collections

Tamworth Regional Gallery

43

Helen Ful l e rPAINT rags 2006

plastic baskets, recycled rags,

polyester ribbon, safety pins

dimensions variable

Warped 2006

oil on canvas

103 x 152

1949 born Adelaide

South Australia

1994 MVA, University of South

Australia


2006 Cinnabar, Watson Place

Gallery, Melbourne

2005 Helen Fuller, Sullivan+Strumpf

Fine Art, Sydney

2005 Gingham Grids, Helen Maxwell

Gallery, Canberra

2004 Dirndl Patterns, Watson Place

Gallery, Melbourne

2004 White Elephant Black Sheep,

Prospect Gallery, Adelaide


2006 Writing a painting, SASA

Gallery, University of SA

2004 From The Ephemeral To The

Eternal, University of SA Art

Museum, Adelaide

2002 Installation Stills, Centre for

Contemporary Photography,

Melbourne

Collections

Art Gallery of South Australia,

Australia National Gallery, Flinders

University Art Collection, National

Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art

Gallery, Sir James and Lady Cruthers

Collection and others

Helen Fuller is represented by Helen

Maxwell Gallery, Canberra, Sullivan +

Strumpf, Sydney and Watson Place

Gallery, Melbourne

Beth Hat tonAs for man, his days are as grass...

(Kangaroo Rifle) 2003

tussock grass, cordyline, linen thread,

wood, wire, kangaroo skin offcuts,

emu feathers

65 x 157 x 20


(Tasmanian Tiger Trap) 2003

tussock grass, cordyline, linen thread,

wood

30 x 180 x 31


(Wool Shears - Second Series) 2004


88 x 22 x 14

1943 born Saskatchewan, Canada

1981- College of Fine Art, Sydney

1982


2004 Selection, Cowra Art Gallery;

Museum of Brisbane

2003 Selection, Canberra Museum

& Gallery

Recent Selected Group Exhibitions

2002- Wild Nature, JamFactory,

2005 Adelaide and touring

2002- 15th Tamworth Fibre Textile

2004 Biennial, Tamworth and

touring nationally

2002 Fabric(ation)s of the

Postcolonial, Wollongong

University

2002 Transition & Resilience,

JamFactory, Adelaide

2000- Craft From Scratch - 8th Craft

2001 Triennial, Frankfurt Museum fur

Angewandte Kunst; Art

Gallery of South Australia

1999- Thylacine, Tasmanian Museum

2001 and Art Gallery and touring

Selected Collections

National Gallery of Australia,

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery,

Museum and Art Gallery of the

Northern Territory, Powerhouse

Museum, Queensland Art Gallery,

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Cather ine GrundyDraw me a gumtree (River Murray

Gums) 2006

Stumpwork, stranded cotton on satin

diameter 30 cm

Catch me a fish (The Coorong) 2006

stranded cotton on organza and

cotton mixes, laid fabric with

appliqué

diameter 28 cm

Show me some wildflowers 2006

surface stitchery and appliqué on linen,

Brazilian dimensional embroidery on

rayon thread on polyviscose

diameter 28 cm

1944 born Murray Bridge

South Australia

1963- studied sculpture and textiles

1964 at North Adelaide School

of Art

1973 BA Music Librarianship,

University of Rochester,

New York

1975- BA University of Durham, UK

1978

1996 Teachers Certificate in

Brazilian Dimensional

embroidery

Member and tutor,

Embroiderers’ Guild of SA Inc

Recent Group Exhibition

1994 Millinery, staff exhibition,

South Australian School of Art

Ju l i e GoughNavigator 2006

blankets, shells, wire, plastic, wool,

string

27 x 53 x 285

Addition 2005

acrylic on paper

Historical image: Terre de Diemen,

navigation, vue de la côte orientale de

l'Ile Schouten, Plate XIV from Lesueur

et Petit, Voyage de découvertes aux

Terres Australes exécuté par ordre de

S.M. l'Empereur et Roi, Atlas (Paris,

1807). Reproduced courtesy

TASMANIANA LIBRARY, State

Library of Tasmania.

1965 born Melbourne, Victoria


1994 BA, University of Tasmania

1997 Gordon and Anne Samstag

International Visual Arts

Scholarship

1998 MVA, Goldsmith’s College,

University of London

2001 PhD, University of Tasmania


2005 Intertidal, Gabrielle Pizzi,

Melbourne

2002- Chase, Imperial Leather,

2004 installation, Ian Potter Centre,

National Gallery of Victoria

2002 passages, Mahatma Gandhi

Institute, Mauritius


2006 Zones of Contact, Biennale of

Sydney

2005 Cross Currents, Linden,

Melbourne

2005 Habitus Habitat, Perc Tucker

Gallery, Townsville

1999 Liverpool Biennale, UK

Collections


National Gallery of Victoria, Art

Gallery of South Australia, Tasmanian

Museum and Art Gallery, Art Gallery

of Western Australia, Flinders

University Art Museum, Powerhouse

Museum and others

Julie Gough is represented by Gallery

Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne

Barb ieGreenshie ldsSlough 2005


2 x 1.4 m

1957 born South Australia

2000 MFA, University of Tasmania

2005 PhD, Griffith University, QLD


2005 Emblems of Mortality, College

Gallery, QCA, Brisbane

2005 Eating Anatomy, Project

Gallery, QCA, Brisbane


2004 Temperature: Contemporary

Queensland Sculpture, Museum

of Brisbane

2003 Mesh, The Art Gallery,

National Institute of

Education, Singapore

2002 Boundless, Art Gallery of

Western Australia, Perth

44

Glenys HodgemanBlew Willow - Gift Tease 2006

90 x 70 x 12

photo projection – pergamano image

1964 born Adelaide

South Australia

2001- MVA, Goldsmiths College,

2002 University of London

2001 Gordon and Anne Samstag

International Visual Arts

Scholarship


2005 Wrapped, Two Cubes,

Sherman Gallery, Sydney

2004 Gifthorse, JamFactory, Adelaide


2006 Past and Presents, Felicity

Johnston Gallery, Perth

2005 Drawn Out, Perth Institute of

Contemporary Art, Perth

2004 Manifesto, Downtown Art

Space, Adelaide

Glenys Hodgeman is represented by

Felicity Johnston Gallery, Perth

Osmond Kant i l laPandanus Design 1986

cotton drill and permaset fabric ink

4000 x 115

1966 born Melville Island,

Northern Territory

Recent Exhibitions

2002 Telstra National Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Art Award,

Darwin

2000- Tiwi Textiles Translating

2001 Tradition, London Printworks

Trust, UK

1999 Framed Gallery, Darwin

Collections

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney,

University of Wollongong, NSW, Art

Gallery of South Australia,

Queensland University of

Technology, Northern Territory

University, numerous private and

corporate commissions

Naomi Kant jur iFeather basket 2005

36 x 31 x 28


Two Feather baskets 2006

36 x 31 x 28


Feather shoes 2006

15 x 16 x l30


1944 born Victory Downs

South Australia


2005 Anangu Backyard: the art of

-2006 storytelling, Adelaide Festival

Centre, Artspace

2005 Minymaku Arts: emerging artists

from Amata, Indigenart,

Fremantle

2005 Minymaku Arts, Art Images,

Adelaide

2005 Waku Kunpu: Strong Story,

Bandigan Art, Sydney

2004 Looking after country: Manta

Atunymankunytja, Flinders

University Art Museum,

Adelaide

2004 Desert Divas, Gallery

Gondwana, Alice Springs

2004 Telstra National Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Art Award,

Darwin

Collections


National Heritage Board, Singapore

Art Museum

45

Kay Lawrence AMNo work for a white man 2005

installation of wooden chair, blanket,


excerpt from Whitework 2005

dimensions variable

1947 born Canberra, ACT

1965- Dip Art, South Australian

1968 School of Art

1977- Studied Tapestry Weaving,

1978 Edinburgh College of Art, UK

1988 Major Tapestry Weaving

Commission, Parliament

House, Canberra

2002- Head, South Australian School

2006 of Art


2004 Fabrics of Change, Faculty of

Creative Arts Gallery,

University of Wollongong,

NSW, Flinders University City

Gallery Adelaide

2004 Material Culture, Australian

National Gallery, Canberra

2002 Weaving the Murray, Art

Gallery of South Australia and

Prospect Gallery

1999 Close Ties, Kay Lawrence and

Marcel Marois, Uni of

Queensland Art Museum

Collections

National Gallery of Australia, Art

Gallery of South Australia, Art

Gallery of Western Australia,

Queensland Art Gallery, Tasmanian

Museum and Art Gallery and others

Susan MaderWorking the Fallow, 2004/05


coated with lime

59 x 225

Fallowing, 2004/05


coated with lime

50 x 225

Oats and Barley, 2004/05


coated with lime

60 x 18

All works from the Open Space series

1950 born West Midland

Western Australia

2004 BA, Edith Cowan University,

WA

2006 MA, Edith Cowan University,

WA

Solo Exhibition

2005 Open Space, Hall Gallery,

Fremantle Art Centre


2005 Murdoch Community Hospice

Fine Art Exhibition

2004 String me a Story –

SpECtrUm Project Space

Sophie Mor r i sFold 2005

felt and darn

dimensions variable

Envelope 2005

2 elements

felt and darn

dimensions variable

Enclose 2005

3 elements

felt and darn, silk edgings

dimensions variable

1985 born Perth

Western Australia


2006 completing Honours,



2005 Curtin Degree Show, Curtin

University Gallery

2005 MATTEReality, Moores Bldg,

Perth

Collections

Katherine Kalaf Gallery, Perth

Miche l l e NikouGrey Gulf 1997-2002

12 elements

mixed material, dimensions variable

1967 born Adelaide

South Australia

2005 MVA, University of South

Australia


2005 Greenaway Art Gallery,

Adelaide

2004 Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Selected Group Exhibitions

2006 Imagine…, Heide Museum of

Modern Art, Melbourne

2005 Mentor/Mentored,

Contemporary Art Centre of

South Australia, Adelaide

2005 ARCO, International Art Fair,

Madrid, Spain

2004 2004, National Gallery of

Victoria, Melbourne

Collections

University of South Australia Art

Museum, Art Gallery of South

Australia,

National Gallery of Australia, Clo

Fleiss Collection (Paris), Gigi and

Josef Fainas Collection (Geneva),

private collections

Michelle Nikou is represented by

Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide and

Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Toby RichardsonUnknown, Brooklyn Park 5032 2005

image size 170 x 130

Giclée print on etching paper

from the series Singles, Couples and

Queens

1966 born UK

1993 BVA, University of South

Australia

2000- Lecturer, University of

2006 South Australia

Solo Exhibition

2005 Singles, Couples and Queens,

Adelaide Central Gallery


2006 City of Hobart Art Prize,

Tasmanian Museum and Art

Gallery

2005 Concord, South Australian

School of Art Gallery,


2005 Art Year Zero, South Australian

School of Art Gallery,


Collections


Artbank, Arts SA, Transport SA,

Department of Primary Industries SA,

University of SA, University of

Technology Sydney, Department of

Industry and Trade SA, Jam Factory

and Design Centre SA, SA Tourism,

Peter Lehmann Wines

Pet ra MeerKreuz (Cross) 2004

Manch’ schöne Stunde birgt die

Einsamkeit...

(Loneliness holds many a beautiful

hour...)


48 x 45 x 17.5


cotton wadding, thread

Mutter (Mother) 2004

...Flüchte hinein, nimm mit Dein

wahres Wesen!

(...Flee into it, take with you your

true being!)


58.5 x 37 x 34


cotton wadding, thread.

1965 born Kiama

New South Wales

1992 BA, Charles Sturt University,

NSW

1989 BA, Southern Cross

University, NSW

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1996 Natal, Salamanca Arts Centre,

Hobart, Tasmania

1995 Face, The Moonah Arts

Centre, Hobart, Tasmania


2005- Woven Forms, Object

2007 Galleries, Sydney NSW and

touring

2005 Art & the Sacred & Tasmania,

Schoolhouse Gallery, Hobart

46

Nalda Sear l e sLittoral...Embrace... 2006

towelling, shells, stones, linen threads

147 x 107

1945 born Kalgoorlie



2005- Woven Forms of Australia,

2008 Object Gallery, Sydney and

touring

2004 16th Tamworth Fibre Textile

Biennial, Tamworth and

touring nationally

2004 Seven Sisters, Craft Council of

WA, touring

2002- Tracking Cloth, Wollongong

2004 Art Gallery and Indonesia,

touring

Collections

Art Gallery of Western Australia,

Museum and Art Gallery of Northern

Territory, Wollongong City Gallery,

Edith Cowan University, Museum of

Arts and Crafts, Itami Japan, and

many others

47

Hol ly Sto ryHeritage (salt rising) 2006

found blanket, plant dye, salt, acrylic

binder medium

160 x 145, diptych

1953 born Zimbabwe

grew up in England and

various countries

1971 arrived Australia


1992 Post Graduate Diploma,



2003 Holly Story, Church Gallery,

Claremont, WA

2002 Landmarks, Helen Maxwell

Gallery, Canberra, ACT


2005 The Place Where Three Dreams

Cross, Plimsoll Gallery,

Tasmanian School of Art,

Centre for the Arts, Hobart

and touring

2004 Shifting Ground, Moores

Building Fremantle

2004 16th Tamworth Fibre Textile

Biennial, Tamworth and

touring nationally

Collections

Curtin University, Art Gallery of

Western Australia, Museum of Arts

Crafts Itami, Japan, Artbank,

Bankwest and others

Bede Tungata l emTiwi print table cover, Tiwi Design,

1988



various overlayed designs, main

design Pukumani

5 metres


1952 born Tiwi Islands


2006 Banguyilbara: work from the

MCA Collection, Sydney

2004 Munupi Editions, Kick Arts

Gallery, Cairns, Qld

2003 20th Telstra National

Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander Award, Darwin

2001 Islands in the Sun, National

Gallery of Australia

2000 Fremantle Print Award, Ist

Prize, Fremantle Arts Centre,

WA

Collections


Museum and Art Gallery of Northern

Territory, Fremantle Arts Centre and

others

I rmina Van Nie leCarrying Loss (5 elements) 2006

found plastic shopping bags, cut and

knitted

total installation space 350 x 200

1949 born The Netherlands

1973 arrived in Australia

2006 PhD, University of South

Australia


2005 Vague, Liverpool Street

Gallery, Adelaide

2004 Far From Solid, Liverpool

Street Gallery, Adelaide

2003- Words for Wandering, State

2005 Library of South Australia,

Adelaide

Wilma Walker Black Palm (ngakan) dilly bags (balji)

2005

twined hand woven black palm and

lawyer cane

various dimensions

1929 born Mossman Gorge

(Jinkalmu), Queensland


2003 Storyplace, Queensland Art

Gallery

1999- Spinifex Runner, Campbelltown

2000 City Bicentennial Art Gallery

1995- Made With Meaning Craft of

1998 Aboriginal Far North

Queensland, Cairns Regional

Gallery and touring

Collections

YBI Office Thuringowa Townsville,

Queensland Art Gallery, Sydney

Museum, Tamworth Regional Gallery

48

RosemaryWhiteheadHead-dress: for my daughter 2001

wooden clotheshorses, text, textile

work knitted from natural and man-

made fabrics

395 x 85


1980 BA, University of Adelaide

1982 Postgraduate Studies,

Edinburgh College of Art


2005 SALA Festival, Kangaroo Island

2001- Home is where the heart is,

2002 University of South Australia

Art Museum and touring

Collections

National Gallery of Australia, Power-

house Museum, Artbank, private

collections

Rosemary Whitehead is represented

by ArtStok, Sydney

Liz Wil l iamsonFloral, Domestic Damask series

2005


cotton and linen

66 x 70

Teatowel, Domestic Damask series

2005


cotton and linen

66 x 70

Sweater, Domestic Damask series

2005


cotton and linen

66 x 67

All woven at the Montreal Centre

for Contemporary Textiles, Canada


3 Darned objects

household objects and garments

darned and repaired by my mother


during the 1970s

cotton and linen

dimensions variable

1949 born Maryborough, Victoria

1981- Textile Design RMIT

1983 Melbourne

Currently senior lecturer and coordi-

nator of textiles in the School of

Design Studies, College of Fine Arts,

University of New South Wales


2006 A Visible Thread, Ivan

Dougherty Gallery,

Paddington, NSW

2006 Visible darning, Project Space,

Object Gallery, NSW


2004- 16th Tamworth Fibre Textile

2006 Biennial, Tamworth and

touring nationally

2005 Collect, Object Gallery, NSW

2005 Inspired - design across time,

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney,

NSW

Selected Collections

Tamworth Regional Gallery, National

Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse

Museum, Art Gallery of Western

Australia, Victorian State Craft

Collection

I lka WhiteSea grass wreath 2006

collected sea grass stems with natural

calcium deposits from small sea

creatures, sterling silver

12 x diameter 40 cm

silver components by Nicky Hepburn

Tidal cords 2005/6

recycled shell and glass buttons, silver

leaf, handspun cotton, linen and

rayon yarns, raw silk, sterling silver

diameter 40 cm (bound as a circle)

silver disks by Nicky Hepburn

Sea grass Bandolier 2003

collected sea grass stems, mixed

cotton and linen yarns, sterling silver

diameter 44 cm (lying as flat circle)

silver components by Nicky Hepburn

Desert Life (under, inside, all around…)

2005/06

spinifex, budgerigar and other

feathers, thread, silk, paper, camel

hair, cloth

installation dimensions variable

(components 3 – 10 cm in

diameter)

And the land was formed (#2) 2006

batswing coral seeds, thread

diameter 29cm (lying as flat circle)


1996 graduated from Melbourne

Institute of Textiles

1997 established textile practice in

Melbourne

2000- teaching at RMIT University,

2006 Melbourne

Recent Selected Exhibitions

2006 Medalling: 8 Designers on a

Quest, RMIT Gallery,

Melbourne

2006 Poetica, Object Gallery,

Sydney

2006 The Presence of things, sense,

veneer and guise, Monash

Faculty Gallery, VIC

2005 Newhaven Arts Project, ÜBER

Gallery, VIC

2004 Whitework, solo exhibition,

Craft Council Victoria, touring

regional Victoria 2005-6

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria, RMIT

University and private collections in

Australia, UK, USA

in the world: head, hand, heart -17 tamworth f t biennial · vivonne thwaites is a curator based in...

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