Middle Distance is part of an ongoing project that uses the visual language of architecture and tapestry processes to create jarring spatial experiences. Contrary to its dense materiality and clear-cut linear construction this work appears unstable and in flux. The focus of the viewers’ eye is bucked from point to point and forced to soften in much the same way that one stares into space, disengaged with one’s immediate surroundings. In the end, as Mark Wigley says, “What is experienced is the atmosphere, not the object as such.”1 1. Mark Wigley, The Atmosphere of Architecture

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by Isabel Dunstan.

A small black and white cotton tapestry that depicts various styled lines to form a spatial design.

britt salt, tapestry, textile

In 2019 Peoples undertook a residency at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra. The original proposal was to explore the suburban gardens. However, it was the man-made lake with a different bloom, blue-green algae that held her attention. The still waters of the lake in the early mornings are tranquil. Becoming more familiar with the Lake, details caught Peoples’ eye. However, she realised the only interaction by humans with the Lake were two men who motored a small boat to the centre of the Lake, a hint as to the connection between tranquility and blue/green algae.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by June Brown.

A small embroidery using a colour palette of green, red, blue and brown depicting a scene of Lake Tuggeranong mounted into a brown spectacle case.

sharon peoples, embroidery, textile, lake tuggeranong

In 2019 Peoples undertook a residency at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra. The original proposal was to explore the suburban gardens. However, it was the man-made lake with a different bloom, blue-green algae that held her attention. The still waters of the lake in the early mornings are tranquil. Becoming more familiar with the Lake, details caught Peoples’ eye. However, she realised the only interaction by humans with the Lake were two men who motored a small boat to the centre of the Lake, a hint as to the connection between tranquility and blue/green algae.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by June Brown.

A small embroidery using a colour palette of green, orange, blue and brown depicting a scene of Lake Tuggeranong mounted into a purple spectacle case.

sharon peoples, textile, embroidery, lake tuggeranong, landscape

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A black and white cross stitched portrait of a woman on a laptop screen.

clare mccracken, cross stitch, portrait, textile

Remembering the White Building, 2017 Clare McCracken As Cambodia rapidly urbanises, it is the urban poor that are forcibly removed from their homes to make way for shiny new apartment towers they cannot afford. In 2014 during a residency at the White Building, a medium-density slum in central Phnom Penh, Clare stitched pocket-sized cross-stitches of the ornate bricks of the building over the top of cross-stitch patterns of Angkor Wat. She gifted these tiny works to the residents she met - something they could take with them as a reminder of their community when it was demolished. In 2017, as the Cambodian government demolished the building, Clare created another series of the works: in memory of a community that had now been destroyed.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A textile artwork that is made up of 4 cross stitch squares with each square a different colour and design.

clare mccracken, cross stitch, textile

The Six Degrees works are hand-spun human hair yarn woven on a 4-shaft table loom with a cotton warp. The names of the people who have donated the hair are written above the weavings. They were traced with graphite carbon paper directly on to mount board. Six Degrees is about the connections between individuals and the groups they are part of, emphasised by the names of the donors of the hair being included above the weavings.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by the artist.

A small weaving made from cotton and human hair mounted on a board marked with the names of the people who donated their hair to be woven.

rodney love, human hair, textile, weaving

The Six Degrees works are hand-spun human hair yarn woven on a 4-shaft table loom with a cotton warp. The names of the people who have donated the hair are written above the weavings. They were traced with graphite carbon paper directly on to mount board. Six Degrees is about the connections between individuals and the groups they are part of, emphasised by the names of the donors of the hair being included above the weavings.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by the Artist.

A small weaving made from cotton and human hair mounted on a board marked with the names of the people who donated their hair to be woven.

rodney love, human hair, textile, weaving

The panels from the I Am Because We Are series are woven from cut-up donated socks. They were woven on a four-shaft floor loom with a cotton warp. The names of the donors have been typed onto polyester ribbons which have been woven in with the socks. It’s possible that the typewriter ink could fade if exposed for long periods to strong light, but the sock material should be fairly stable as they were almost exclusively commercially-produced socks. The wood of the frames has been painted with an acrylic paint, and covered with MDF boards. The fabric is stretched over the frames and secured with staples.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by Artist.

A woven textile work using fabric in shades of black, grey, white, green, and orange.

Caught Fish, PANGASIANODON GIGAS” is a miniature version of the larger tapestry described below and it embodies the same ideas: The giant Mekong Catfish is under threat of extinction due to over-fishing and loss of habitat. It is beleived that the fish used to reach sizes over 3 metres, but the largest recorded catch to date is 2.7 metres – a monster fish caught in Thailand in 2005. As its fame and the mythology surrounding it increases, so does the number of game fishermen keen to land a record catch or earn a sizeable amount of money in the exotic food marketplace. However, the water flow of the river is increasingly more controlled by China, changing the natural habitat of the river. It seems that survival of the great catfish is being left to chance and the fish’s ability to avoid nets, lines and traps in the murky green waters of the Mekong. My exhibition piece is a giant, woven Pangasianodon Gigas – made as a shaped tapestry which will hang the way a fisherman would hold up his catch to display or be photographed as his trophy. The drawing was made from photographs of very large fish I observed in Laos and the detail on the body of the fish is deliberately ambiguous scales/nets. The piece will be woven on cotton seine twine (which was originally made as a string for fish netting) with mixed weft yarns. Artist statement about the work: The final work is an abstraction of fish and nets – an image made with a hand drawn quality suggesting the personal observation that goes with looking and responding with ink on paper. The tapestry technique mimics the original marks to a certain degree but is also very obviously a woven form with its stepped edges and shapes, blending of tones through hachure and broad set of warp and weft.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small tapestry of a caught fish handwoven using a colour palette of black, grey, and white.

valerie kirk, tapestry, textile, fish

I draw inspiration from the world around me and from particular aspects of life. Previously my work dealt with my experience as a Scottish migrant – looking back and forward, north and south, here and there, between two countries. This ‘in-between-ness’ of the migratory experience, while not unique to me or other Australians, contributes to my sense of being made up of many parts, a kind of fragmentation where certain components come into play at different times. There is an eternal mismatch or sense of being out of place in my world as I am recognized as Scottish in Australia when people hear me speak but in Scotland people comment on my Australian accent. In a wider sense Australia’s history and culture is made up of many examples of people and things brought together without a good likeness or fit. Woven tapestry allows me to combine my interests in textiles and visual art using the tactile qualities of materials in the highly complex woven form. It allows be to create realistic images, but change format, composition and placement to create images which invite the viewer to question. The intricate nature of multiple wefts twined between warps parallels the complexities of life and tapestry’s building /constructed process embodies the advancement of time.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small tapestry of a tree and its root system handwoven using a colour palette of black, grey, and white.

valerie kirk, tapestry, textile

I draw inspiration from the world around me and from particular aspects of life. Previously my work dealt with my experience as a Scottish migrant – looking back and forward, north and south, here and there, between two countries. This ‘in-between-ness’ of the migratory experience, while not unique to me or other Australians, contributes to my sense of being made up of many parts, a kind of fragmentation where certain components come into play at different times. There is an eternal mismatch or sense of being out of place in my world as I am recognized as Scottish in Australia when people hear me speak but in Scotland people comment on my Australian accent. In a wider sense Australia’s history and culture is made up of many examples of people and things brought together without a good likeness or fit. Woven tapestry allows me to combine my interests in textiles and visual art using the tactile qualities of materials in the highly complex woven form. It allows be to create realistic images, but change format, composition and placement to create images which invite the viewer to question. The intricate nature of multiple wefts twined between warps parallels the complexities of life and tapestry’s building /constructed process embodies the advancement of time.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small tapestry of roots and leaves handwoven using a colour palette of black, grey, and white.

valerie kirk, textile, tapestry

I draw inspiration from the world around me and from particular aspects of life. Previously my work dealt with my experience as a Scottish migrant – looking back and forward, north and south, here and there, between two countries. This ‘in-between-ness’ of the migratory experience, while not unique to me or other Australians, contributes to my sense of being made up of many parts, a kind of fragmentation where certain components come into play at different times. There is an eternal mismatch or sense of being out of place in my world as I am recognized as Scottish in Australia when people hear me speak but in Scotland people comment on my Australian accent. In a wider sense Australia’s history and culture is made up of many examples of people and things brought together without a good likeness or fit. Woven tapestry allows me to combine my interests in textiles and visual art using the tactile qualities of materials in the highly complex woven form. It allows be to create realistic images, but change format, composition and placement to create images which invite the viewer to question. The intricate nature of multiple wefts twined between warps parallels the complexities of life and tapestry’s building /constructed process embodies the advancement of time.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small tapestry of a gum leaf and a singe root system handwoven in a colour palette of black, grey, and white.

valerie kirk, tapestry, textile

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A textile sculpture of a red book that has a ribbon of woven pages flowing from it.

mandy gunn, textile

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Gift of the Artist.

A spherical sculpture made from black inner tubes

mandy gunn, sculpture, recycled

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small maquette tapestry featuring a scalloped design in a colour palette of white, olive, and grey.

tim gresham, weaving, tapestry, textile

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Acquired with the assistance of The Robert Salzer Foundation.

A small tapestry featuring dark blue and white rippling lines on a light blue and aqua background.

tim gresham, tapestry, weaving, textile

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Acquired with the assistance of The Robert Salzer Foundation.

A small hand-woven tapestry featuring a jagged line pattern in shades of blue on a ochre coloured background.

tim gresham, tapestry, weaving

The genesis of this work was an exploration of materials and sustainability, which led to the use of jute twine as the base material - a humble, sustainable fibre, and an unlikely material for the creation of 3D forms. Machine sewn with a simple zig zag stitch, the work contrasts the most basic of materials and equipment with the creation of beautiful and sophisticated objects. Embedded textures are constructed with a variety of threads, yarns and techniques, allowing the minimal palette to highlight serendipitous interplays of form and texture.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

5 twine bowls of various sizes in a colour palette of black and cream.

fiona gavens, textile, twine bowl

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small weaving with a colour palette of black, green, yellow and white.

esmae emerson, weaving, textile

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A small weaving with a colour palette of black, reds and oranges.

esmae emerson, weaving, textile

‘Unidentified’ is part of a body of work challenging distinctions between art and craft, looking at the relationship between women and needlework, and through this questioning aspects of the human condition such as the impermanence of life and what we leave behind. This triptych is part of a series of portraits inspired by daguerreotypes. I am interested in capturing a sense of the ephemeral nature of life which is reflected in these images which appear as photographs from a distance but become less and less focussed as you approach until they become just stitches on fabric.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

Three separate black and white petit point pixelated portraits.

ying chew, petit point, textile, embroidery

I am interested in the history and practice of weaving and textile production and the growing of cotton in different areas of the world, especially as it relates to my Lancashire, UK heritage. The cotton painting drop cloth has been dyed with Australian native plants and the warp threads exposed by removing the weft showing the simple robust structure of this fabric characteristic of the interlacing of warp and weft in plain weave. This work can be hung or can stand on a plinth or table.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by June Brown.

A textile work that features a piece of cotton drop cloth that has has sections of the warp threads removed and other sections plant dyed brown to create a radial effect.

hilary buckland, textile, plant dyed

When in the desert it is frightening to see a distant fire, even though you may not see the actual flames. As evening approaches the sky reflects anger and colour. The mesa is also reflecting some of the glow . I imagined it had been burnt already and some embers are still aglow in the evening light All fabrics used in this work are cotton commercial fabrics. My stitching has been done to accentuate the red reflection in the sky. Black rayon thread gives a certain sheen to the mesa with a dried grassy foreground. ‘Sky Series’ Changes are constantly taking place in the sky . I love the variety, colour and movement of the sky which are all a direct result of the clouds, sun and time of day. I certainly think about the sky much more when we are on Safari. The sky is a great indicator of the ever changing time of day and weather conditions …... fine and clear, cloudy, sunset, sunrise and storms. The artwork features a simple ‘mesa’ shape against the sky. A mesa is a flat topped hill. Which are part of the Australian Inland. The mesa I have featured is in recognition of Mt Connor in the Northern Territory.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A embroidered textile depiction of an outback landscape scene during a fire featuring a colour palette of pinks, purples, and browns.

june brown, textile, landscape

Stormy skies can be memorable with dark and contrasting colours. They often appear menacing and producing apprehension in the air because of the oncoming weather. Fabrics used in this piece are all commercial. I have endeavoured to make the sky angry with stitches. The mesa has some very dark and ominous craggy rifts. ‘Sky Series’ Changes are constantly taking place in the sky . I love the variety, colour and movement of the sky which are all a direct result of the clouds, sun and time of day. I certainly think about the sky much more when we are on Safari. The sky is a great indicator of the ever changing time of day and weather conditions …... fine and clear, cloudy, sunset, sunrise and storms. The artwork features a simple ‘mesa’ shape against the sky. A mesa is a flat topped hill. Which are part of the Australian Inland. The mesa I have featured is in recognition of Mt Connor in the Northern Territory.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A embroidered textile depiction of an outback landscape scene during a storm featuring a colour palette of blues and browns.

june brown, textile

‘Sky Series’ Changes are constantly taking place in the sky . I love the variety, colour and movement of the sky which are all a direct result of the clouds, sun and time of day. I certainly think about the sky much more when we are on Safari. The sky is a great indicator of the ever changing time of day and weather conditions …... fine and clear, cloudy, sunset, sunrise and storms. The artwork features a simple ‘mesa’ shape against the sky. A mesa is a flat topped hill. Which are part of the Australian Inland. The mesa I have featured is in recognition of Mt Connor in the Northern Territory.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A embroidered textile depiction of an outback landscape scene at sunrise featuring a colout palette of soft pastel blues and pinks, and vibrant reds and oranges.

june brown, landscape, textile

My work has always involved textiles. I began my art practice in the darkrooms of photography, but I often came back to textiles to expose my images on, with either cyanotype or daguerreotype processes. I love way textiles can be manipulated so quickly and how each piece of fabric can have a different feel and weight. I prefer to use old materials with an inherent history that I can repurpose and reinterpret, usually linen, cotton, silk and other natural fibers. My work has increasingly become about texture, an overload of visual complexity and the introduction of hard materials into the soft sculpture medium. Almost anything can be stitched into a piece and so far the inclusion of brass, bronze and copper as small components of the finished work has opened the boundaries of where my practice can go. I use stitches and beads and other things to ‘draw’ and make patterns on each work; I love the detail and the investment in each slow stitch it takes to reveal the final piece.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A black, golden, white, and silver handsewn protection totem encased in a glass dome case.

gillian bencke, textile

Making marks with needle and thread across the landscape of life, sometimes treading lightly but often leaving scars. Wandering was inspired by marks left from the eucalyptus leaves on the fabric, a scrap of fabric easily carried, an idle moment to make a few marks with needle and thread. A longer time to stitch becomes a wandering mind, like taking a walk in the bush, deciding on the tracks ahead and reflecting on those already taken.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Donated by June Brown

A rectangular silk piece that has been botanically dyed brown with eucalyptus leaves and then green, blue, and orange cotton threads have been handstitched across the piece to create tracks.

kathy beilby, botanical dying, handstitching, textile

A cast terazzo vase covered in a blue wash with sculpted wires arranged in the vase.

rose wedler, sculpture

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A jewellery sculpture featuring a pendant style necklace in a dark wooden hand-carved block stand. The necklace pendant consists of three metal disks and four clusters of red beads.

Milagros is inspired by the Mexican tradition of pinning ‘ex-votos’ or ‘milagros’ onto the robes of Patron Saints when requesting a miracle. Ex-votos or milagros are votive offerings of small metal shapes which represent a visual form of people’s prayers. The central question in this piece is:If the creatures of the river could, which ones would be asking their Patron Saints for a miracle or two? Most of the wetland and river fauna which are depicted in Milagros are listed as endangered or vulnerable and are recorded as belonging to the area of the Ovens River stretching from Wangaratta to the Murray.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection

A rectangular sculpture that features a light wood beam with a brown fabric hang from it, with small golden animal pendants attached to the fabric.

rose wedler, sculpture, milagros