March 2012

This month’s review will cover firstly the development and weaving of the last major motif. The source of inspiration is the spiral which I have selected as being representational of New Zealand. While I have been to New Zealand and think that the country is truly beautiful and I cannot wait to get back there again (perhaps next year), it was an encounter with a New Zealand lady at a particularly difficult time that had a very significant connection. She provided me with the information that the spiral can represent a new beginning and later sent me a spiral from a paua shell. It has a permanent place hanging in my studio. I have also come across spirals in many places including on an ancient site in New Mexico. The following images are of two of the interpretations of this motif into woven structure.

The last week in March saw me drive to Mittagong. Yes I am back! For those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning, you will know that this all started with a residency at Sturt as a means of recording my adventures.

At the end of March I set up my solo exhibition in Sturt Gallery with the opening on Sunday 1^st April. I was absolutely humbled and delighted by the number of friends who came from far and wide as well as the general public that attended. My friend, Glenys Mann spoke beautifully to open the exhibition. Thank you to those who came. I would also like to acknowledge the staff at Sturt who made it all possible. The exhibition will be up till 13^th May. If you do come, please make sure you come and see me in the studio. I am about to embark on another 3 month residency. The following are some images of the exhibition. For those who have been following the development of this work you will see some familiar pieces as well as some that I have not previously shared.

The following four views give an overview of the exhibition.

This set of images show detail of the motifs developed from a particular country and experience.

I thought that I’d also share the brief artist statement that accompanies the exhibition.

A Common Thread

Have you ever stood in front of an object and wondered: Where have I seen that pattern before? Maybe it was in another place, another medium, another time. I had this experience in full force when I was standing in St Marks Square in Venice and looked at the brickwork of the Doge’s Palace and was instantly aware that it was a weaving pattern. My research later uncovered that it was in fact credited as being inspired by textiles. Since then I have become increasingly aware of the commonality of design across tome and place. Patterns that had very local roots can also be found in another country and perhaps many hundreds of years earlier. The same pattern may appear extensively in several mediums and in relatively common usage across cultural groups.

It is this universality of design that is the focus of this exhibition.

Universality of design will be explored by selecting design from across medium and cultures. While the selected designs may be found in textiles, the emphasis was on selecting those from outside my medium of the handwoven. In addition the initial concept must be informed by my experience. I must have been there. I must have seen and experienced.  My experience provides an extra dimension and level of meaning. For me each of these designs have meaning, often relating to others. The countries that I have sourced motifs from include: West Timor, New Mexico, Italy, New Zealand and India. In addition the motif of the concentric circle has significant meaning as representational of an aboriginal design for “meeting place”.

These designs have then been interpreted into woven cloth in diverse technical interpretations. The designs have been handwoven on a variety of looms from conventional 8 shaft loom to 24 shaft computer assist, draw loom and jacquard looms.

In the process of developing design, I have also referenced aspects of traditional cloth. It is not however my intention to recreate one of these traditional textiles but rather interpret several influences to achieve something totally unique, hand woven by me in a design that spans time and place.

Parallel to this is the awareness that when contemplating the universality of design, the underlying fact is that wherever a crafted pattern appears; it is always the result of someone’s endeavour. It bears the signature of the maker’s hand, expressing the universality of man (and woman), the creator…across media and disciplines- without boundaries.

 And finally some images of the studio where I am now doing the artist residency. On my last residency I recorded the passage of time with an image of a tree just outside the studio. This is an image of a garden at the back of the weaving studio. The gardens are beautiful. Maybe I will record the passage of time with this garden.

Mid February 2012: An invitation

The invitations have just arrived. If you are in the area at anytime during the exhibition please call into Sturt. I will be around. Of course you are also invited to the Opening Event.

September 2011

At Hervey Bay Regional Art Gallery I had an opportunity to see Twelve Degrees of Latitude . This is a Museum and Gallery Services Queensland touring exhibition to celebrate Queensland’s 150 th year and has been touring since 2009. It has been drawn from Regional Galleries and University art collections. I have a small piece in the exhibition so it was great to have the opportunity to see it again. I have also just received an invitation to its showing locally at the Redland Art Gallery, 23 October-27 November. Some of the work will be here with the rest of the exhibition at Redcliffe City Art Gallery. So I will have another opportunity to see the works.

Another exhibition well worth a visit is at GOMA. Threads: Contemporary Textiles and the Social Strucute  is on 1 October- 5 February. “Bringing together a diverse range of contemporary textiles from the Gallery’s Australian, Asian and Pacific Collections, the exhibition celebrates the ways in which contemporary artists explore and extend the textile medium.” Many of the works exhibited traditional techniques. Included in the exhibition is a huge tapa cloth especially commissioned for the exhibition.

I have been practicing some carpentry skills. My draw loom had an annoying habit of pattern shafts tilting and not hanging true. The pattern shafts had been suspended from a central point and it was this that resulted in the tilt. To overcome the tilt, I constructed two structures with 20 screw eyes; enough for each shaft. These were then positioned over both ends of the shafts. Venetian cord was then used to replace the original cords. The modification required a doubled cord to run from the toggles at the front and through the original spacer. The use of a bead stopped the cord pulling through the toggle.  The venetian cords then separated to pass through the appropriate screw eye to the shafts below.

A draw loom, by the way has two sets of shafts: one for the basic structure e.g. satin, the other for the actual pattern. The ground shafts have always operated satisfactorily but the pattern ones were a problem. I am very pleased to announce that my modification works perfectly.

One of the major highlights for this month has been all the associated activities in launching my daughter on her grand adventure. Helen has obtained a year’s exchange teaching in the UK. She starts her adventure with a holiday with a friend. Currently she is in Scotland having a grand time.

July 2011

I know it’s not quite the end of the month but I thought I’d share images of the exhibition early. I also know that life is about to get busy so I’m writing this post when I’ve got some time. The blog this month is all about the exhibition in Darwin. The staff at the gallery worked hard and have presented the exhibition beautifully. They have been a delight to work with. I do love the use of the very ornamental frame that they just happened to have in the back room. I’ve started the images on the left as you walk into the room. They then follow around the room. They are intended to give an overview of the exhibition: Line, Angle, Curve. All the work have elements of geometric pattern. Many of the work have been shown on earlier blogs.

 

Once I got home, I spent a few days catching up on some work and recovering at Burrum Heads. I have been going there since I was very young. It has been a family connections since my father was a young lad. Every time I visit, I always make sure I walk to the “dead tree”. My mother has memories of it standing out in the water 60 odd years ago. Each time I visit it is more worn, but it is an amazing to consider that it has stood out in the water exposed to the tides for that length of time and possibly much longer.

June 2011

Only less than a week to go and I’ll be in Darwin for the opening of my solo exhibition. Here’s the e-invite. If anyone is in the neighbourhood, it would be great if you could get along for it.

 

There’s not much to show this month from the studio. I have done a number of scarves and have started spending some considerable time on design. Those designs will appear later but at this stage they are still got a way to go before I share them. Here are examples of two scarf series that I have been working on.

 Three doubleweave scarves

Three scarves: Squares in Squares series

In addition I thought that I’d share some textiles from Sumatra, Indonesia. These were originally collected by a Fran Keech in the 1980′s. She was not a “textile expert” at the time but was absolutely fascinated by textiles and went to Sumatra armed with what she had discovered and with an intent to collect. She passed them to me sometime in the  mid 1990′s. I have always made a committed effort to share these textiles and have felt that I’ve held them “in trust”. This seems an ideal venue to share them.

The first  textile is a Palepai or Ship’s Cloth. This particular type of Palepai is known as sesai balak or big wall. (280 x 56 cm). It originated from the extreme south coast of Sumatra. It was probably woven about the early 1900’s or earlier. These have not been woven since then according to what I have been able to find out. It is woven from hand spun cotton yarn.

Technique: plain weave background with supplementary weft pattern. Each colour is woven in its isolated area. Therefore there may be several colours being woven in one pick.

Purpose: These were used to celebrate important rituals: marriage, birth, circumcision, when a man advanced in rank, death. They were hung behind the principal person, with the palepai of other participants being hung to the left and right according to rank. According to Gittinger  in Splendid Symbols: Textiles and Tradition in Indonesia, Oxford University Press, 1990 (original by The Textile Museum, Washington 1979) The history of ships cloths is obscure and the reason for both their original use and their decline remain conjectural. The skill need to produce them is completely lost….. The factors that are presumed to have caused this include the abolition of slavery in 1859, the decline of the pepper trade, and changing marriage traditions. So many have appeared on Western markets in the past five years that it doubtful any significant number remain in use in Sumatra today.

This is a very old ikat textile that was collected on the South Western side of Sumatra. For producing ikat cloth, the warp is wound, then the area which isn’t to be dyed is bound then dyed. As you can imagine there were many tied areas here to produce this cloth. The pattern is very well aligned. Indigo was used to dye the yarn.

This old narrow scarf was also collected from south west Sumatra. In addition to the ikat it has additional pattern with a supplementary weft design.

This is a remarkable textile. It was originally a skirt. Fran who collected it undid the back seam. The background has coloured checks. The pattern is achieved by the use of metallic wrapped around a core of probably cotton. This is then woven as a supplementary weft aligned with the background of checks. I understand that Fran was told it was a “court” skirt from the mid east coast of Sumatra. She later discovered that it wasn’t the “nobility” who wore it but rather women of lesser standing at “court”.

This textile is a little more recent, though not modern.  I have shown a close up detail of the whole. Along the length there are spaced bands of these ikat stripes. The control in achieving the clarity of the ikat design is great. Note the patterned band at the end. This woven band appears at both ends and finishes off the textile. This seems to be typical of the south west.

This is a ”new” textile. It would have been woven in the mid 1980′s. The ikat and supplementary weft (including brocade) traditions are still  being used with glitz. In some ways though this is an extension of the metallic wrapped cotton core thread that was used in a previous textile. The skill in weaving this is excellent.

These textiles are surely a reflection on the skill of weavers spanning more than a century. It can be guaranteed that in all cases they were using “primitive” looms which were most likely back strap.

At the end of May

This month, I’m sharing a series of work for the forthcoming solo exhibition at “Framed” in Darwin in July. One of the works was shown last month on the loom. The series is Take Five.  The theme was developed from take five minutes to doodle, daydream and design. Take five of the elements and put them together and design a whole.  At this stage I put a warp on for double weave, wove the first image and then for the next two subsequent pieces, changed elements within the design simply by swapping the black and white layers. Doubleweave, by the way, is a process whereby two layers of fabric are woven at the same time and allows for very graphic, clean images as each layer can have its own colour.

Take Five I 

Take Five II

Take Five III

I was enjoying this design and then wondered what would happen if colour was introduced. So obviously, I took 5 colours. The aim was to explore the interaction of colour between layers.

Take Five IV

Then of course I realised that it needed five in this series. So for the last, I decided to work in one colour and swap a section of the design exchanging colours from one layer to the other.

Take Five V

While I have many more colour ways that I could explore, this series is finished. I have taken five.

There was great hilarity in my garden. I heard the rainbow lorikeets and went to investigate. There was a gathering: some splashing water, others soaking wet and others dry and obviously waiting in line. At one stage I counted 5 in one bird bath, 3 in another and the smaller one had 2 with more up in the trees above. I just had to stop and be entertained!

March 2011

There’s more investigation into indigo, playing with “rust” and some serious weaving this month.

After last month’s “Great Indigo Experiment”, there were still three recipes that Sheila and I were interested in trying. Jane wanted to do a rerun with the zinc/lime vat as she wasn’t happy with the results. So, this month we got together and continued the experiments. In addition to repeating the zinc/lime vat, we tried one that used soda ash instead of caustic soda and one that used a combination. The recipes are again listed. We got good dark results from the first two and reasonable results from the second. The blue, this time around, was much darker. Maybe this was because of more exact measurement, precise temperature control but also because there was not as much being dyed as on the Experimental Dyer’s day. One of the biggest surprises was the great results we got out of the soda ash vat. It produced the deepest blue and the vat also lasted for 3 days. It is also great because it is non toxic as compared to all the others with caustic soda. I also tried a comparison between doing multiple dips on one day and the same number over several. This was one of the advantages of having the vats here. I could spend a lovely few minutes each day dunking. Better results were obtained over an extended time. In all our experiments the dipping time and time between dips (when they were consecutive) were standardised.

Top: repeat of zinc/lime vat, middle: recipe 10, bottom: recipe 11. Beside each test result is the deepst blue achieved from each bath. Top: 6 dips with 2 each day over 3 days. Middle: same sequence. Bottom: Unfortunately this bath did not last beyond 2 days so this is the result from 6 dips on day 1.

 I was having such a lovely time starting out each day with a play activity, that I had another look at rust. (Sometimes I find a quick light hearted play where results aren’t important a great way to start the day and get creativity started.) Experimental Dyers this month experimented with “eco dyeing”. One of the activities involved sandwiching plant material and rusty bits between silk and tightly tying it up before boiling. Those results need to sit for a month before being revealed. They are still waiting, but I was reminded of rusty bits. Quite some years ago I did some work on rusting paper. I wanted to use these same recipes and try them on fabric. Because a strong solution of caustic is required, I would only attempt this on cotton. Different sequences produce different results. The results on fabric are not as spectacular as on paper but are still interesting enough. In addition I transferred rust from rusty bits onto silk by sandwiching them between layers of silk, spraying with vinegar and leaving wrapped up for a day or so. Now those results are interesting. I still have plans for trying out an “Indian Black” recipe that uses rusty bits at some stage but that process takes a while.

 I am excited by a technique I have just been exploring. When I visited West Timor (and that’s on an earlier blog), I collected some textiles. I was intrigued by a number of techniques. This month I analysed a “Sotis” piece and worked out what the threads actually do. It is in essence a “colour and weave” in plain weave with warp floats. The West Timor weavers do these on a back strap loom with a pick up stick. I, of course, am going to use a loom and make it do the work of a pick up stick. I worked out that my 24 shaft could achieve similar results. Once I experimented with weaving pattern, I considered what design I wanted to focus on. One of the common patterns is a “hook” design. This design is used to represent “linked arms”. In every community, we were always greeted by a formal ceremony where the importance of relationships between us were stressed. They have a dance where they link arms and this was pointed out as being the same design as in the textiles. So, for me this design has significance and that was what I wanted to use.   I have used it though in a different way to how I saw it being used.  It was used as a paired motif. I have used it singly, in pairs and as a “string of linked arms”. I particularly like the philosophy behind the long line of linked arms.

Back in January I showed a piece of doubleweave in black and white while it was being woven. It is now complete and is no longer black and white. This piece and the following will be in my solo exhibition Line, Angle, Curve in Framed Gallery, Darwin in July. I am weaving a major body of work for the exhibition and am spending very focused time in the studio.

December 2010

Japanese Story has been hung and will be on till 22^nd December at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. The following are some views of the exhibition.

The exhibition is by 4 artists: Michael Le Grand (sculpture in the centre), Lois Johnson (wood block prints to the right), Nicola Moss (paintings to the right) and myself (textiles at far end).

 

While I was away I took the opportunity to check out some exhibitions in both Canberra and Sydney.

In the National Museum of Australia, Canberra there is a wonderful exhibition: Yiwarra Kuju,  The Canning Stock Route. It is predominately a response by aboriginal artists to both the site and its history. In addition there are also some photographs and memorabilia on the history of the route. www.nma.gov.au

Ballets Russes is on in The National Art Gallery till 20^th March. There are some very interesting costumes on display from many of the ballets performed by this company. In the National Art Gallery are also some Asian textiles currently hanging in that themed gallery space.  www.nga.gov.au

Art + Soul is on at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It is the exhibition that runs in conjunction with the 3 part series that was recently shown on ABC TV. The book and DVD are also available. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

November, 2010

Over the past 12 months or so, when I have had studio time, I have been working steadily towards a group exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. This week sees the culmination with photography being completed. The work is now ready to be transported to Goulburn for the exhibition opening on Saturday 11 December. I am providing a sneak preview of some of the work from which the curator will select for “Japanese Story”.

Japanese Story 8-22 December 2010 at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery with the opening at 2 pm on 11 December by Anne Fulwood, Trustee, Art Gallery of New South Wales www.grag.com.au

Don Hildred has taken the following images. www.donhildred.com.au 

Diamonds on Diamonds; hand woven, silk with cotton/linen, weft shibori on the drawloom, indigo, synthetic lining.

Integration IV and V: Yardage,both are cotton, handwoven 5 end satin damask on the drawloom with warp shiobori. IV: fibre reactive dyes; V: natural dyes (Eucalyptus cineraria), discharge, fibre reactive dyes.

Squares on Squares; hand woven, wool, warp and weft shibori, acid dyes, felting.

Alternate Squares on Blocks; wrap, hand woven, silk and wool, weft shibori on twill blocks, pleated, acid dyes.

At the end of September

An exhibition, the garden, studio time and adventures in Darwin are the activities this month.

Scarf is an exhibition by the members of the World Shibori Network Australia and New Zealand. Yoshiko Wada, the acclaimed shibori expert has been in Australia conducting workshops. To coincide with her visit an exhibition was planned and opened in Barometer Gallery on 12 September. It finishes on 3^rd October. After which it will tour and come to Brisbane on 6-21 November. Along with a number of other Queenslanders, Sheila Virgo and I flew to Sydney for the opening.

I have spent a lot of very productive time in the studio weaving. As well as producing a quantity of pieces which are now at the stage of being “finished” prior to dyeing, I was reminded of the need to have equipment functioning at its full potential. Some of the pieces required a heavy beat. Dancing over the treadles, both feet flying, body suspended balanced over a loom while it moves is a recipe for developing some pain. Reminder: Tie the loom down. Who took my rope? It used to be there but in getting some things moved on a trailer it was removed. I have put an interim rope back on so it is now securely anchored. I am aware though that having surplus loose rope is not ideal. It will be fixed.

I took time out from weaving and went to Indigiscapes. It is an initiative of Redland City Council where they grow seedlings from local native plants. I went to acquire a few additions for my garden. I found Indigofera australis, a native indigo. The plant is labelled “Open shrub to 1.5m with attractive heads of pink flowers. Full sun or semi shade.” The pretty flowers caught my eye, but it was the plant name that caught my imagination. Of course I’m going to try and dye with them….some time. I have acquired several. My plants are very tiny: about 40 cm high and a twig. It will take a very long time for them to produce enough leaf for a dye bath; perhaps this time next year.

My daughter, Helen and I have just returned from a week’s visit to Darwin to see my son/her brother Andrew. In addition Helen and I visited Kakadu. It is an amazing place and is world heritage listed both environmentally and culturally. As well as experiencing the landscape and seeing a large number of saltwater crocodiles, a huge number and variety of birds and beautiful lotus, we saw some amazing indigenous rock paintings at Ubirr, north of Jabaru. The paintings are executed in ochres and are hundreds to thousands of years old. They are remarkable in their detail with many having fine brush work in an X-ray style. There are 2 types of paintings: that done by the spirits and those by the aboriginals. There are no recent paintings being done on this site. Instead they are being painted on canvas and board for the tourist market. It is interesting that no paintings are “touched up”. This is culturally not accepted, but it is accepted for paintings to be painted over and there is much evidence of this. The act of painting is what was important. No spirit painting is ever painted over.

This painting of Mayubu reminds traditional owners to tell a story which warns against stealing. Creation Ancestors feature prominantly at the Ubirr rock art galleries.

We timed our visit to Ubirr perfectly. Two aboriginal ladies from Kunbarllanjnja (Oenpelli), a community just west of the Kakadu boundary, demonstrated some fibre techniques. These included how to prepare fibre from pandanus leaves, dye and make baskets. We were encouraged to try to make fibre. It involves splitting the pandanus leaf in half widthways and then into several long lengths. It is tricky! They make it look so easy.

On their trip across they had collected a number of plants (bulbs and some flowers) and roots for dyeing. Unfortunately no names were given for the plants. The aboriginal ladies recognise the plants and have a name for them in their language while the two rangers did not have expertise in this area. (For the Aboriginal people English is often not their primary language but rather either their second or even third language).  I think that Haemodorum cocceneum was the source providing the root bulb and flower for the red/brown. It is a small plant, possibly a lily that has a bulb, long leaves and red flowers on a long stalk, growing readily in the wet season. The yellow was obtained from another root which had the bark scrapped off. In both cases the material was pounded between a paver and a rock and then put in water in a pot over an open fire. The fibre was added and the colour was extracted quickly.

A coiling method was used to make the baskets. These baskets are sold both in galleries in Darwin and Kakadu and in their local community. A permit has to be organised before visiting Kunbarllanjnja in Arnhem Land.

Lastly, a picture of a local. No one can visit Kakadu and not play tourist and see the crocodiles.