Covet Miniature Works by Regional Canberra artists Textile artists often make exquisite works which are highly covetable. In our contemporary world of mass production and consumerism people are under pressure from the media and social expectations to want and buy more with so many choices on offer. How do we think about and understand feelings of yearning, longing for, wanting to possess in a world that offers so many material options? Artists in this exhibition have explored the idea of Covet: desiring an object that is not theirs. The fascinating thing about this theme is that it not only implicates objects but social relationships. As well, notions of self-control and self-regulation are necessary to avoid acting upon yearnings. There is the facet of danger, risk or, in the past, an ingredient of sinfulness. Coveting could lead to criminal behaviour. Envy, a related emotion, is also implicated and is driven by social comparison.
Think Tank Talk - In conversations with the Artists led by Dr Sharon Peoples Sunday 6 March, 2:00pm Free Please join the conversation with the artists about the works in the exhibition.
LIST OF WORKS
1.
The Promise
Gabriella Hegyes 2016 Tuelle, fabric, thread, metal rods Religion has played a major aspect in my life through my grandmother’s catholic beliefs. As I was brought up by her I envied her belief - to me the religious text became a jumble of words coiled up in an unintelligible way and apart from my excitement about nature I never made the connection with her beliefs.
2.
Keep on Walking
Rachel Bickovsky 2016 Hand stitched, various threads and yarns on cotton Keep on walking, everything will be all right (with thanks to Kierkegaard)
3.
Pools of Life
Katherine White 2016 Cotton fabric, fine netting, ink, thread Coveting a pristine environment for all seen and unseen creatures. The pools of life shrink.
4.
Coveting Time
Valerie Kirk 2015 Stitched fabric The work for Covet explores images of fossils translated through drawing into textiles. It embodies ideas about the distant past and our inability to fully visualise this as although we have remains, museum exhibitions and artists’ impressions the reality of the past will always be beyond our grasp.
5.
Sweet Dough
Rachel Devlin 2015 Plastic bread clips This work is a comment on our society’s creation of plastic materials to package our needs and wants and the impact of this waste on our environment. The greatest threat to wildlife is loss of safe habitat.
6.
Desire
Bev Moxon 2015 Plywood, faux fur, felt, cotton threads To covet is to wrongfully desire that which belongs to another. Capitalist society reconfigures the immoral desire to possess as a virtue. Coveting the skin of another is uniquely immoral. Fur is dead yet fashion portrays fur as sensual, glamorous, expensive and highly desirable.
7.
Golden Lungs no.2
Sharon Peoples 2016 Machine embroidery on soluble fabric The work explores coveting an Art deco Egyptian shawl my sister owned.
8.
With Apologies to Arthur Boyd Nancy Tingey
Lithograph, knitted wire, linen thread, red biro, mounted and framed. One of my favourite places is Farleton Fell, a limestone pavement in the North of England. My parents ashes are scattered here and my siblings visit often; I cannot.
9.
2015
Paper Dolls Barbara Dawson
Old books, magazines, patterns with heritage textiles As a young girl I was not happy with the glorious doll handed down to me through the generations. I wanted more. I coveted the ordinary and multiples of dolls. This series of paper dolls made with old papers and textiles represents my longing.
10.
2015
Mooculta ‘46
Belinda Jessup 2016 Eco dyed silk, silk threads, rayon thread The memory of a land no longer accessible to you and dances in your mind; memories of a time so precious it now holds a place in history that doesn't exist. To find my place in landscape and time, I need to return to a place I have never lived in or been the land of my mother.
11.
Fold
Janet Long 2015 Resin, perspex, copper These brightly coloured resin objects are in opposition to their inherent decay suggesting that what we covet is impermanent and subject to change. We are yet to see whether our pursuit of immortality is also a futile one.
12.
Coiled basket
Jenny Manning 2015 Coloured yarn and plastic tubing The intricate geometric patterns found in Navaho Indian and African baskets both inspire my own patterned baskets and illustrate the lack of traditional pattern making in our contemporary culture.
13.
Freedom
Jill Trudgen 2015 Wire, tissue, lace and glue To relinquish one's resistance/attachments that imprisons one's self. That stops us from having freedom within and freedom without and where the sky is the limit.
14.
The Silk Road
Wendy Dodd 2015 Silk, metallic yarn The desire for silk and other goods from China led to the development of the ancient trade routes to the west. I continue this desire for the gloss, touch and fineness of this fibre.
15.
Necklace for my Mother Ann McMahon
Cane, embroidery and sewing threads, jewellery wire Recalling the covetous feelings I had, as a child, for my mother's jewellery, this over-sized necklace has been made using her collected embroidery threads. The form is symbolic of both the tangible and intangible connections that remain with me since she passed away.
16.
2015
Come to the Edge
Marli Popple 2015 Arashi shibori. To covet - a desire for the impossible; how wonderful to fly soaring above or transcending ordinary bounds, a concept that can be literal or metaphorical. Always a shadow travels with us.
17.
Louise
Beverley Thomas 2015 Paper, ink, embroidery cotton This is my story about a connection to my Grandmother, who died in 1908, shortly after my father’s birth.
18.
Longing
Ola Robertson 2015 Free motion embroidery. Covet means longing to own an unobtainable object. For me it was an invisible object rather than a visible one. Living a transitory lifestyle for most of my life, I had no permanency and therefore no belonging. Belonging is something I treasure dearly, belonging to a group, community and most importantly - family. To rip away some of the fabric of that belonging leaves a gap that can never be filled.
19.
Stitch by Stitch
Mary Douglas 2015 Silk, polyester, human hair. 'Stitch by Stitch ' metaphorically explores my endeavors to re-stitch my life together after bouts of Profound Depression with associated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have the right tools, the right pattern, the best intentions and commitment, but try as I may, the garment that emerges is unwearable, though an intrinsically unique expression of a life deeply lived.
20.
Everyone, Everywhere Monique Van Nieuwland
2015
Born free and equal in dignity and rights.
21.
Silk warp and hand dyed monofilament weft, handwoven Jacquard
The fashion is what you’re wearing!
Lynn Johnson 2015 Cotton stitched on cotton ‘…..have a fancy for, set one’s eyes upon; cast a sheep’s eye, look sweet upon; take into one’s head, have at heart, be bent upon; set one’s cap at, heart upon, mind upon; covet’.
22.
A Divided Perspective
Janet Meaney 2015 Flyscreen and metallic gauze fabric stitched In this performance I am divided between an old nostalgic symbol of the past and a bright synthetic metaphor for the future, grasping at that which I portend to covet.
Cover image: Everyone, Everywhere, Monique Van Neiuland, 2015
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