The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the making of the feminine (1984) by Roszika Parker is a seminal text in contemporary textile and fibre art discourse. Centring on the history of embroidery and the role it played in the construction of the ‘feminine,’ the work has weathered much criticism since its original publication in 1984. While […]

why must a gown either creep or caress & not slip into both These words, rendered delicately in pink and barely visible atop exposed aggregate and polished concrete flooring, graze my soles as I enter Hannah Gartside’s Fantasies at Ararat Gallery TAMA. Autumn Royal’s poetic response references a tag from a vintage nightie that Gartside […]

Artists: Matt Arbuckle, Sean Bailey, Lucia Canuto, Rafaella McDonald, Jahnne Pasco-White, Laura Skerlj Curators: Daine Singer and Laura Couttie In 2009 Maggie Nelson published her cult hit Bluets, a book of prose poetry exploring grief, loss and suffering via meditations on the colour blue. Nelson’s oft quoted text stands as the curatorial and conceptual inspiration […]

Under the canopy of a suspended length of silk, blankets, pillows and bundles are laid out, ready to cushion bodies that might be in need of rest. Pieces of cloth dyed shades of brown, bronze and orange, are stitched, knotted and folded to become bedclothes and soft furnishings — some carry imprints of leaves from […]