Home:Hand Quilt 2023

‘In Conversation’, Gallery 76 (SYD), Louis Joel Gallery (MELB) 2023

Social media gives artists the ability to access ideas, opportunities and peers in a direct and immediate way leading to connections and collaborations that would not have been possible in the past.For many, the online community has led to discovering a whole new genre of art-making and large groups of people with shared textile interests a revelation for those who have worked in isolation.

To explore this concept further Tara Glastonbury invited a group of Australian artists to engage in a quilt dialog with an international artist they first connected with online. Each pair then developed an approach in conversation exchanging materials, celebrating a shared love, building on similarities in style, or meeting in person to create together.This exhibition is the result of these conversations and sees some of the biggest names in modern quilting exhibiting here for the first time, alongside their Australian counterparts.

Artwork Statement

A Vietnamese-Australian and Indian textile artist have a conversation. This leads to an exchange of textiles used in their respective practices. A box of naturally dyed, vintage and up-cycled cloth was posted to Ahmedabad, India, while a parcel of factory remnants and unprocessed Kora cotton was delivered to Melbourne, Australia.   

This work, ‘HOME:HAND’ is a journey of heart and hand. Taking an abstract and expressionistic approach to creating this work, I have layered and patchworked together textile waste, sent to me by the Indian designer Hetal Shrivastav of RaasLeela Textiles, to evoke feelings of comfort and home. The traditional log cabin block, appliquéd in isolation, form windows, allowing the viewer to step a little closer, to look in. While hand-made lines traverse the work to create texture and connection, reminiscent of quilts made in the past by hand for the home, a time when all cloth was precious.

quilt top - 100% reclaimed natural fibres.

quilt backing/batting/binding - 100% re-claimed natural fibres.

plant dyes - NA

Han quilted, hand embroidered and appliquéd.

135 x 135 cm approx

This work is currently with a curator and will be available to purchase shortly. Please contact if you are interested.