Tamworth Fibre Textile Bieniale

13th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial.

Many Voices.

Exploring the multiple cultural influences evident in Australian fibre textile practice. Curated by Gillian McCracken.

Shown at Tamworth City Gallery, Australia,1998 then touring nationally.

17th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial
In the World: head,hand,heart.
Addressing how artists using fibre textiles engage with contemporary concerns. Curated by Vivonne Thwaites.

Shown at Tamworth City Gallery, Australia, 2006 then touring nationally.

Many Voices

Holly Story has explored the cultural limitations of the colonialist view of Australia as not only unowned land but of unnamed species of flora and fauna which reulted in the imposition of names such as Banksia quercifolia [oak leaved Banksia] for an indigenous plant. Her investigation has utilised the traditional female occupation of floral embroidery on homely items which replicated female activity in the homes left behind and re-created remembered homes in an alien environment. In Drawn from Memory, traditional floral embroidery overlays photographic images of the reality of life in this alien and difficult environment. Gillian McCracken, 1998. Exhibition catalogue for Many Voices.

In the World

Holly Story’s Heritage (salt rising) employs the image of a 19th century fan marked out with salt mixed with a medium. Its design alludes to the patina of salt across the land and acts as a metaphor for the legacy of European settlement. Plants gathered from the south of Western Australia are cooked up for dyes to imbue the work with a sense of place. The artist notes that there are plants and animals that have adapted to live in the natural salt lakes in the Great Southern district of Western Australia but we are changing the balance too fast and too far for natural adaptation to keep up. The artist sees the blanket as a reference to human domestic comfort and security as well as a metaphor for the ‘skin’ of the land, on which our ultimate security and well-being depends. Vivonne Thwaites, 2006. Exhibition catalogue for In the World: head,hand heart.