2024 Exhibition - Wondai Gallery - September 3 - 28
Theme: Botanical – an Exploration in Fibre
Botanicals are plants or parts of plants that have various uses and benefits for humans and the environment. They can be sources of food, medicine, fibre, clothing, beauty, art, pleasure, recreation, and other products that enrich our lives and well-being. In this art exhibition by Tangled Threads, you will discover the diverse and fascinating world of botanicals through the eyes of talented artists who capture their beauty and essence in various mediums.
As textile artists, it is our intention to celebrate the beauty of botanicals in our work, using what fibres, materials and techniques are available to us. We will tease out the threads that bind us, tangled together in our search for artistic expression of the beauty of Botanical. We invite you to join us in this botanical art exhibition and discover the amazing gifts that nature has to offer. You will be amazed by the creativity and skill of our artists who have used a variety of techniques such as quilting, embroidery, weaving, painting and dyeing to create intricate designs that showcase the beauty and diversity of botanicals in their artworks. You will also gain a deeper appreciation and respect for the plants that sustain us and our planet.
Tangled Threads
Kingaroy 2024
2024 Exhibition - Lapunyah Gallery, Chinchilla - 24 February - 3 April
Theme: Alchemy: A Essay
Making something precious and valuable from something cheaper, common and readily available may have been the incentive of early scientists. Their efforts lead to the development and establishment of chemistry as a separate and distinct branch of scientific endeavour but their goal of transforming base metals into gold has remained unfulfilled.
Over centuries textile artisans have achieved much greater success in making something precious and valuable from a wide range of resources: some cheap and readily available such as hair and fur from animals hunted for food to rare and therefore valuable fibre such as silk and cashmere.
Technique has been as important as the original raw material. Over millennia, humans have developed techniques for working with fibre. What began as simple stitching using sinew and needles crafted from bone, has evolved into the complex manual skills of spinners, weavers, lacemakers, dyers, printers, felters and stitchers. Since the industrial revolution, machines have been invented to replicate these processes. The results may be greater volume for less time and cost: but the trade off is often consistency and monotony versus artistic flare, richness and subtle creativity.
As textile artists in the 21st century, we pay homage to the endeavours of our forebears, we celebrate the magnificence of the skills developed and refined over time immemorial, we utilise the convenience of modern technological developments in the use of fibre and we engage in our own experimentation as we process fibre from many sources to create something valuable for our own and your enjoyment.