Exhibition - gallery views
Exhibition Opening & Invitation
Le Fil (the thread) is an exhibition of new work at Gaffa Gallery organised by Sydney based artist Kath Fries. The exhibition brings together twelve visual artists who adopt and deconstruct materials, processes and designs commonly associated with the textile industry. Participating artists include Hannah Bertram, Linden Braye, Sophia Egarchos, Kath Fries, Michelle Heldon, Sahar Hosseinabadi, Chrissie Ianssen, Shannon Johnson, Michele Morcos, Jade Pegler, Megan Yeo and Melinda Young.
Textiles hold a prominent position within our society visually alluding to cultural, national or religious beliefs or ideals. Whilst we rarely consider the role of material objects outside of their practical use, fabrics are frequently imbued with personal and emotional significance. Dress can be used to communicate an allegiance to a particular group or to suggest a particular social position within society. Cloth items can also become private artefacts kept for their representation of memories rather than usefulness as functioning objects. In recent years, greater social awareness of ecological and ethical issues around the consumption and disposal of mass-produced textiles has ensured that fabric has taken on an increasingly political role within our daily lives.
Le Fil (the thread) investigates the personal, commercial and cultural value of textiles within contemporary and historical contexts. This conceptual thread connects the diverse practices of the participating artists which span video, performance, painting and installation. The works in the exhibition explore textiles from a myriad of angles which range from the examination of fabric as a metaphor for memory, the cycles of decay and renewal inherent in natural fibres, to the relationship between craft and traditional assumptions of femininity.
The exhibition opening of Le Fil (the thread) will feature a live performance by Sydney-based sound artist Mick James. During the performance the artist will aurally stitch together recorded and electronically produced sounds and samples to create a live tapestry of ephemeral soundscapes.
A zine publication has been produced to accompanying the exhibition and features a commissioned essay by Jane Llewellyn and texts from the participating artists.
Le Fil (the thread) is the current in a series of ongoing exhibitions that explore how concepts and materials associated with textile and craft production are being utilised within a contemporary artistic practice. Previous exhibitions in the series include Through the eye of a needle (2008); Quick Unpick (2008) and Lure, Allure, Illusion (2009).
Chrissie Ianssen
Michelle Heldon
Linden Braye
Linden Braye completed her Masters in Visual Arts in 2009 at Sydney College of the Arts. In 2001 she was awarded a BVA with first class Honours at Sydney College. Linden has exhibited in several group shows in Sydney and has been a contributing artist for several years in Sculpture in the Vines, a site specific sculpture event at Wollombi Valley north of Sydney.
"My work for Le Fil involves the development of the urban ‘rat’ as subject matter for an ongoing series of works. The original work Rats were made of upholstery stuffing that I saw on the floor in my lounge room. I took this ‘fluff’; recycled fibre, for a dead rat not unlike the kind which is washed up in gutters or in corners of the city.
These works are a combination of Diva in which a fur coat and fabric have been re-incarnated into a morphed version of a previous life. The linings of fur coats are always soft and shiny, they add to the sensuality of the fur and to the desire for luxury and status. My fabric linings emulate the organs that have been discarded from the carcass. Continuing in this vein are several rats which have discernable fibrous remains of internal organs and those that have developed into brightly coloured consumer icons.
This work reflects my interest in the construction of nature and built environments and the hierarchies that form our beliefs surrounding the object and ideas of value." Linden Braye, July 2009
Kath Fries
Kath Fries graduated from Cofa with BFA Honours in 2002, last year she completed her MVA in painting and installation at SCA, supversied by Lindy Lee. She has had three solo exhibitions in Sydney and participated in numerous group shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Over the past two years Kath has curated several group exhibitions in Surry Hills at Gaffa and Albion St Gallery, bringing together process based and conceptual artists who work with unusual and non-traditional materials.
“My installation for le fil (the thread) consists of numerous meters of recycled fabric woven into a rope, which then leads the viewer around the nocks and crannies of the gallery space. Titled Ariadne’s Thread the work refers to the ancient Greek myth of the Cretan Labyrinth navigated using a spool of thread. Extending this metaphor my installation suggests that to successfully navigate our way through our lives, our own personal labyrinths, we need to take on a sense of responsibility for the care of others and the world we live in.” Kath Fries, July 2009
Michele Morcos
Michele Morcos is a visual artist with a studio practice in Sydney. She graduated from the College of Fine Arts (UNSW) in 1999 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) and a BA Honours in Art Theory. After living overseas and travelling throughout Europe, Michele held her first solo exhibition in 2002 followed by over 20 group exhibitions throughout Australia. Twice she has been a finalist for The Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and recently celebrated her 10th year of studio work with a second solo exhibition. She is has worked in several galleries and is currently a freelance arts writer while pursuing her artistic career.
“Friedrich {A Story} is a series of multi media works that I have been producing from the beginning of 2009. While trying to come to terms with a serious event in my life these artworks are beginning to form a visual catalogue of signs, symbols and landscapes of this personal and spiritual journey that I am now on … My needle and thread element reflects on how life can be broken down to the simplest of acts – and create a type of artistic meditation.”
www.tinytrappings.blogspot.com
Sophia Egarchos
Sophia Egarchos is an artist from Sydney, who completed a BVA with Honours in 2004 and an MVA in 2007 at Sydney Collage of the Arts, University of Sydney. Since finishing her studies Sophia has participated in several group shows and held her first solo show last year in Sydney whilst completing an artist in residence at SNO Contemporary Art Projects in Sydney.
Megan Yeo
Megan Yeo was raised and resides in Sydney and currently shares a group studio in Petersham. She completed her Diploma in Fine Arts at Hornsby TAFE and her BA Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts in Paddington. Megan started exhibiting her work through café’s and enjoys displaying her work in gallery group shows, zines, and as street art, believing that art should be accessible. After a trip to Northern Ireland, Megan started a string of works around Irish political history, terrorism and the image of the balaclava. More recent works cover issues surrounding the British Monarchy and the results of the Australian nation as it was deemed ‘The Experiment’. Megan remains flexible with her choice of media and works in painting, drawing, mixed media, digital, and embroidery.
"My current work is inspired by a recent visit to both Ireland and the English countryside. This a comment about the UK’s perceived internal terrorist threat crossed with my perceptions of British culture. Terror has its place on a global political scale but also a personal level to ones comfort zone. With the serious issues not to be overlooked, I took a\moment to create a scene of satire. My main choice of technique or media is embroidery, this being a traditional craft of the English, representing domesticity and a pleasant, quaint exterior façade… but what is lurking behind it all?" Megan Yeo, June 2009
Jade Pegler
Jade Pegler was born in Wollongong and has lived there ever since. Recent projects include ‘The Demonstrables’, an exhibition at the completion of a one year residency at Wollongong City Gallery, and ‘Holocene,’ a solo exhibition at Gallery 9, Sydney, which included Jade’s first stop-motion animation.
Melinda Young
Sahar Hossenabadi
Sahar Hosseinabadi was born in Tehran, Iran, she studied art there as an undergraduate student and as an apprentice to contemporary artists. After migrating to the Australia in 1998, she was actively researching and working in art industry. Sahar is currently completing her MVA in painting and performance at Sydney College of the Arts.
So Feel My Pulse, 2009, video
"As an artist from a different culture I have been impressed by the contrast between my traditional eastern background and contemporary western living. I frequently feel that while the new culture professes to welcome me I nevertheless feel rejected. It seems impossible for me to be a member of both cultures simultaneously. This has led me to want to explore the issue of identity and how it is determined by cultural, psychological, sociological, physiological and ideological background. The general objective of my artwork is to discover and reveal these differences and bring greater understanding between one culture and another.
Goldfish is the central character in ‘So Feel My Pulse’ video show, based on a previous performance piece. She represents my own experience of cultural change and the difficulties associated with it both in Iran and in moving to Australia. This project explores the diversity of my own perception, delving into personal and lived experience through varied personal bodily experience in asylum seeker issues. ‘Knotted’ is the metaphor of confronting with shortcomings in daily life and how to deal with the gap between Serenity to accept the things I cannot change and Courage to change the things I can. The accompanying soundscape is perplexing, representing the tumult of my heart and personal grief." Sahar Hossenabadi, June 2009
Shannon Johnson
Hannah Bertram
Le Fil (the thread) exhibition catalogue essay - written by Jane Llewellyn
Gaffa Gallery, Surry Hills
30 July to 11 August 2009
At first glance one might assume that the artists in the exhibition, Le Fil (the thread), are exploring the techniques of craft. However, they are using traditional craft techniques and combining them with contemporary media like video, sound and installation aesthetics, sparking the age old debate about where, and if, craft ends and art begins. By using traditional techniques the artists give their works the authenticity of being hand made – something which is becoming increasingly valued in our society – and delivery through contemporary media makes the works and their meanings more accessible.
Blurring the boundaries between craft and art is paramount for the twelve artists in this exhibition: Hannah Bertram, Linden Braye, Sophia Egarchos, Kath Fries, Michelle Heldon, Sahar Hosseinabadi, Chrissie Ianssen, Shannon Johnson, Michele Morcos, Jade Pegler, Megan Yeo and Melinda Young. These artists work across a diverse range of media, dispelling the idea that craft and art exist as separate genres.
For a few of these artists (Linden Braye, Sophia Egarchos, Kath Fries, Chrissie Ianssen, Shannon Johnson, Michele Morcos and Megan Yeo) it isn’t the first time they have come together to explore the ideas of reinterpretation of craft and the reassembling of found objects. In 2008 they were part of the group exhibition through the eye of the needle in which (as Megan Robson says in her exhibition essay) the artists similarly aimed to “...investigate the methods, ideology and forms associated with mass manufactured textile and domestic goods. Utilising the tools, techniques and structure associated with textile and domestic objects...”
In Le Fil (the thread) several artists directly reference traditional craft practices, such as Shannon Johnson who has used embroidery to recreate a giant 5-cent piece and Michele Morcos who creates an artistic meditation in her works, the needle and thread reflecting how “life can be broken down to the simplest of acts”. Sophia Egarchos’s focus is on sewing techniques such as pleating and shirring. When applied to her paintings (she shirrs the canvas), Egarchos transforms flat two dimensional works into tactile three dimensional pieces. Chrissie Ianssen on the other hand composes her paintings using elements of traditional Norwegian knitting patterns. She uses them to striking effect, some may say harking back to a past that is no longer relevant in contemporary Norway. Megan Yeo uses the traditional British craft of embroidery as a quaint and pleasant façade to mask the internal terrorist threat that lurks under the surface of modern Britain.
While the exhibition title, Le Fil (the thread), might suggest that artworks in the exhibition hang together precariously – that the connection is flimsy and delicate – it is used as a metaphor to reflect the fragility of the connections we create in our society which can break or fade away at any moment. As our world continues to advance at a lightning pace, and communication becomes key we question how strong these bonds actually are.
Much more than just a thread holds together the work of these artists, as they deconstruct and rebuild ancient and modern materials and processes, exploring the thread both in its simplest form and the more complicated web it weaves. In Kath Fries’ artwork she creates a literal web using woven strips of recycled fabric forming a rope which is woven through the nooks and crannies of the gallery. Based on an ancient Greek myth, Fries takes us on a journey through the labyrinth which reflects the web of life.
Whether it is the video work of Iranian born Sahar Hosseinabadi, Hannah Bertram’s site-specific installation, or even the wearable jewellery pieces by Melinda Young, these artists are connected by a conceptual thread that runs through the works addressing ideas on how we value fabrics.
This concept is further explored through the notion that we are constantly consuming and discarding large quantities of textiles. It’s not surprising then that the artists explore the renewal and recycling of found objects. These objects are embedded with history which when brought to the new work adds immense value. The cycle of discard followed by renewal highlights the object’s continual value and links the past to the present.
Jade Pegler plays with this notion, creating a future history with his “curiosities” crafted from everyday materials. Linden Braye takes materials with little value from urban or natural environments and creates constructions which reference "the natural world through the built one". Michelle Heldon is also inspired by nature and works with found objects focusing on how the different materials feel and react with each other. The tactility of the surfaces are of particular interest as Heldon explores the relationship between form, colour, texture and shape.
Le Fil (the thread) presents a selection of artworks that are pushing the boundaries between art and craft, a debate which is intrinsically based on value. Is craft a skill and is art an inborn talent? As we are entering a technologically advanced world and visual artists are working across several different types of medium, quite often in the one artwork, such categorisations no longer seem valid.