DRAW Space acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation upon whose ancestral lands our ARI now stands. We pay respect to the Elders past, present and emerging, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these places.
Mixed Wash / Musings on the cloth In a 10th-century textiles treatise, a humble piece of cloth once introduced itself, announcing its inherent usefulness as a functional domestic textile item in the most poetic way. I am the mandīl of a lover who never stopped / Drying with me his eyes of their tears. / Then he gave me as a present to his love / Who wipes with me the wine from his lips.[1] This humble cloth, the mandīl – here, seemingly something between a napkin and a handkerchief – emphasizes its qualities of absorption.[2] A piece of plain cloth, probably of cotton or linen, laundered and folded, held or laid close to hand, its work is to soak up the tears and wine associated with powerful human emotions. A small material thing, unremarkable, yet a vital accompaniment to ritual, celebration, and crying. After use, to be washed and used again. Softening and transforming with every use and with each wash, the mandīl is anonymous, yet known to us all. In this exhibition Recompose / DRAWING WITH THREADS, seven artists explore 21st century equivalents of the 10th-century mandīl, of cloth used over and over. I am the cloth of quiet absorbance. Jennifer Brady Just like that 10th century cloth, Jennifer Brady is drawn to the quietened qualities of absorbance, where the drawing in of marks into fabric bears witness to a muted form of expression. Here, in that dampened down space of stain-swollen fibres, she explores cloth in terms of sensation. Hers is a body of work gently exploring what she calls the aesthetics of softness as a language for often unspeakable experiences. Working from personal mental health experience and the ensuing social isolation, Brady started working with bedlinen – mattress protectors, sheets, and blankets. These were sourced from her family home and from friends. Padded, white, elasticated, these are the textiles that cover and surround our intimate resting place – the bedroom – alternately a place of sanctuary and escape, but also the dim setting for nocturnal wakefulness and rumination. These are the machinemanufactured textiles designed to absorb blood, sweat, ink, and other stains, the messy matter of being human. As a sheet of white drawing paper records a deliberate drawing of the hand, as a white sheet records a stain as non-deliberate drawings of the body. Brady is drawn to depict in-between states, those liminal moments of thought – just before you fall asleep, when you have just finished crying, or when you are coming out of a season of anxiety or depression.[3] More than white and soft materials, Brady suggests a more overt language of liminality through text – repeated, looping, indirect and printed – to record inner ramblings within a soft and safe space. After all, bedding is the stuff of childhood forts, tents, and pillow fights. I am the cloth of Silent Histories. Abby Murray Abby Murray’s cross-disciplinary practice approaches textiles from many directions; and through a variety of mediums. The presence of different materialities creates a storm of surface activity, which paradoxically conceals while revealing what she terms their silent histories. Murray’s practice questions the methodology, discipline, and hierarchy of things, with works that at first glance defy categorisation while beckoning the curious. There is a looseness and deliberate lack of formal structure in the works, which are also vividly coloured and brimming with expressive marks. This conveys a certain precariousness; as though boundaries are breaking down, and things are slipping from one state to another.
An non-profit, artist-run platform to make, see and experience contemporary drawing.
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