Curated by Anna Fiedler, Madeline Simm and Tia Ansell
24 June – 16 July at Caves Gallery Melbourne
This exhibition is a part of CAVES Guest Curator Program 2021 – and made possible with support from Creative Victoria.
Art Guide Australia article – Drawing out new threads: Text Tile expands conversation on textiles by Jane O’Sullivan, 23 June 2022
Patternicity is “the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.” – Michael Shermer, 2008
The exhibition Text Tile will be a showcase of textile based practices of over 50 artists within Australia and New Zealand, to represent the full spectrum of woven and non-woven techniques and a wide variety of printing and dyeing methods. This exhibition will be an ode to and celebration of laboured process, anthropological history of craft and cultural perspectives of fabric. Textiles have a rich history. Whether created for insulation, comfort, or decoration, out of utilitarian or luxurious raw materials, textiles represent the iconographic and ornamental expressions of their respective civilizations, as well as the geographic and historical paths by which the techniques and motifs employed in their creation have traveled from one civilization to another. Their portability, in fact, made them one of the most significant commodities in human history. The industrial revolution brought about the shift towards mass production, new materials and efficient techniques, however artists since, have held onto weaving skills of the past. These skills are past down through generations as tactile memory. Materiality takes us back to our primordial selves, sense of touch and connection to materials collects us to our past while being present and moving towards the future. Fabric holds so much information about society, about who we are, about industry, and what’s going on in the world.
Artists: Benjamin Baker, Sarah CrowEST, Kathryn Tsui, Genevieve Griffiths, Louise Weaver, Christopher Duncan, Claudia Bloxsome, Rachel Hope Peary, Tia Ansell, Jade Townsend, Sera Waters, Daegan Wells, Melanie Cobham, Emily Hartley Skudder, Arielle Walker, Alice Alva, Akira Akira, Phoebe Patcher, Anna Dunnil, Melinda Harper, Bronte Stolz, Jacqueline Stojanovic, Isabella Darcy, Kate Tucker, Janne Pasco-White, Spencer Lai, Camille Moir, Hannah Gartside, Laura Skerlj, Phoebe Millicent, Mashara Wachjudy, Angie Pai, Katie West, Matt Arbuckle, Lucina Lane, Vita Cochran, Paul Yore, Nadia Hernandez, Kate Just, Kathy Temin, Elizabeth Pulie, Amelia Dowling, Jackson McLaren, Ruth Cummins, Maggie Brink, Jimmy Roche, Aidan Renata, Jemi Gale, Anna Varendorff, Anne-Marie May, Clare Wohlnick, Anna Fiedler, Madeline Simm.
ameliadowling.com 