Ararat Regional Art Gallery's collection demonstrates the ways artists have used textile materials and techniques to push the boundaries of contemporary practice.

Anthony Camm, Director, Ararat Regional Art Gallery and Paul Hooper, Mayor, Ararat Rural City Council discuss the gallery's internationally significant collection, spanning the heady days of the 1970's through to now. Featured in the video are artworks by John Corbett, Olga de Amaral, Tony Dyer, Kate Just, Sebastian De Mauro and Yvonne Koolmatrie.

Hammock by pioneering Australian fibre artist John Corbett was one of Ararat Regional Art Gallery's first acquisitions. The work illustrates the way soft materials and weaving in particular were used by Corbett and other international artists to transform perceptions of sculpture.

John Corbett emerged out of the growing craft scene in Australia, learning to weave by attending classes held by the Handspinners and Weavers Guild. His artistic vision is very much informed by 'post-minimalism' which used unconventional materials in new and exciting ways.

wool, dye, 43 x 213 x 128cm

Olga de Amaral was born in Colombia in 1932 and has been hailed as a pioneer of Fibre Art. Her practice draws from her background in architecture and fabric design, combined with her Pre Colombian heritage and strong native weaving traditions.

Corazo en dos Colores ('Heart in Two Colours') is a seminal work of immense scale and complexity. Its acquisition in 1976 boldly asserted Ararat Regional Art Gallery's intention to establish a fibre-art collection of international standing.

dyed horsehair, sisal, pink hand-spun wool, bound rope, 400 x 160cm

Purchased with the assistance of an Australia Council Crafts Board Grant, 1976

Tony Dyer is one of Australia's great textile artists. Dyer rose to prominence in the 1980's when textile art courses were being established at art schools across Australia. He became an important influence and teacher during these heady times when textiles were being established as a bona fide field of art practice.

The Tourist Trap features multiple techniques and materials, including complex dyeing, painting, drawing and stitching techniques. The work is a testament to Dyer's technical virtuosity but also captures his enthusiastic uptake of textile techniques to push the boundaries of image making.

batik on silk, etched drawn images stitched onto canvas, collage with azoic and reactive dyes, stitching, vinyl pain, pigment block print, 152 x 152 x 5cm

Paradise by artist Kate Just makes powerful connections with earlier works of soft sculpture in the Ararat Regional Art Gallery's permanent collection - which extend from 1970's craft-based works, to second-wave feminist art, to more recent post-modern investigations into materials and process.

It also reflects the a growing interest in knitting amongst a younger generation of women who are setting up 'knitting circles' in pubs or 'yarn-bombing' public spaces.

hand-knitted, machine-knitted and hand rug-hooked wool, clay, fibreglass, plastic, metal and glue. Dimensions: life sized figure, lawn area: 230 x 280cm

Surrender is a sculpture created by Sebastian De Mauro from neoprene - a synthetic fibre with the characteristics of rubber which was invented by the Dupont company in 1930 and is today best known for its use in wetsuits.

This work is an example of the way artists are increasingly using unexpected materials and also demonstrates the way the Ararat Regional Art Gallery's definition of fibre or textiles has changed over time.

woven neoprene, fibre glass, plastic mesh, glue, 67 x 102 x 77cm

Yvonne Koolmatrie is a pivotal figure in the rise of Aboriginal fibre craft , particularly her role in highlighting the importance of weaving to cultural continuity for South Eastern Australian Aboriginal people.

Koolmatrie's body of work is comprised of woven forms which have their origins in the material culture of the Ngarrindjeri people of South Australia. The artist was commissioned by the Ararat Regional Art Gallery to create this large eel trap as a foundational work, around which the gallery could build a sub-collection of South Eastern Australian Aboriginal art.

woven sedge, 224 x 49cm (variable)

The Universe Quilt is a major textile artwork by Lucas Grogan which took almost a year to make. This large textile wall hanging was painstakingly hand embroidered by the artist and features cultural icons, references to archaeological drawings and self-portraits swirling around a central Palaeolithic fertility goddess, representing the centre of the universe.

The work puts forward a belief in universal humanity, though not far below the surface lurks Grogan's acerbic wit and critique of contemporary culture.

embroidery, cotton thread on black laminated cotton, 200 x 175cm

Photograph: Asa Gauen

Purchased with the assistance of the Robert Salzer Foundation, 2013

Starlie Geikie's Archers (Team 1) is a textile based installation comprising eight "cloaks" presented in close proximity to each other, the dimensions of which reference the rectangular format of a painting on canvas.

The work suggests a phalanx of people, while equally highlighting the absence of the human form. Presence and absence are important conceptual aspects of the work, as is a consideration of the definition of art by its medium - in this case the artist is questioning whether the object is more aligned to painting or fashion.

hand-dyed fabric, cotton thread, leather, 110h x 165w x 10d cm

Kay Lawrence wrote about the inspiration for this tapestry in 1989, "A friend had a particularly hard time over a couple of years. She'd changed jobs, ensured a difficult relationship, moved from house to house and finally as she left the state she had to abandon her car of 15 years on the Sturt Highway...She went straight to the weekend papers, checked the real estate, looked at two houses and bought the second one on the spot.

When we went round to have a look there was no key. So she took a burnt stick from the woodpile near the back door and drew a plan on the concrete..rubbbing out the mistakes with her foot. "There", she said, "my house"". Lawrence made eight drawings after the incident in quick succession in late 1988. She selected drawing number seven to translate into this tapestry.

woven tapestry, cotton, wool and linen, 165 x 135cm

Photograph: Terence Bogue

Sue Walker is best known as the founding director of the Australian Tapestry Workshop (ATW) from 1976 to 2004. Prior to this, Walker was a fibre artist in her own right. In her history of the ATW, entitled "Artist's Tapestries", Walker compares the spirit of the times and described how these contrasted with aims of the nascent tapestry workshop: "...the aesthetic climate and the lifestyle of the 1970s as reflected in the arts and crafts were free, expressive and back to the earth.

Spontaneous explorations of materials were often taken up as the leading work of the day: the concept of an art that required a high level of technical skill, a finely tuned aesthetic sensibility, and the discipline to work seriously over long house was not in step with the times."

crochet, horsehair, wood, metal, 62 x 77 x 12.5cm

Photograph: Terence Bogue

Purchased with the assistance of the Ararat Gallery Social Committee, 1975

Julie Montgarrett has worked with textiles as a core concern since the late 1970's. She played a pivotal role in the development and validation of textile art in Australia as an artist, lecturer, writer and curator. Fleeter represents a period in the artist's practice in the 1980's when she was concerned with extending the conceptual and spatial possibilities of textile art.

Her major figurative works of this period combine a range of materials and techniques applied to a canvas support. At times both the support and the surface of her works are subjected to cutting, layering, slashing and stitching to create textural complexity and spatial depth. Various materials and traces reveal the artistic processes in her textile constructions.

textile construction: painting, drawing, stitching; canvas, wire, paper and cotton, 156 x 104cm

Photograph by Terence Bogue

Purchased with the assistance of the Ararat Gallery Social Committee, 1987

British textile artist Michael Brennan-Wood has has an association with Australia since 1982. He hand been an important influence on the Australian textile and fibre art scene, especially as a teacher in tertiary institutions.

He introduced a process-oriented approach to studio practice, resulting in large scale works of enormous energy and presence. In this work, Journey to Shiloh the artist co-opts weaving's grid of warp and weft in a mixed media wall work that combines painting and sculptural assemblage to challenge the very definition of textile and fibre.

wood, paint, fabrics, paper, copper wire, 180 x 215 x 16cm

Photograph by Terence Bogue

Purchased for the Victorian State Craft Collection with the assistance of the Australia Council for the Arts - Craft Board

Held on long-term loan by Ararat Regional Art Gallery

Vivenne Pengilley's Popish Ducati Trip irreverently foreshadows the rise of quilting and embroidery that would tranform the character of the fibre art movement in the 1980's. This ambitious work, created in 1977, challenged the notion of textiles as lapwork by realising the quilt on a grand scale, on par with artist working on massive canvases in warehouse studios.

Ducati Trip is made from an exotic list of materials. Pengilley transforms a plethora of haberdashery to create this quilt. Relying on her intuition and the feeling of the fabric against her skin, the artist allows her flamboyance to shine through, no doubt reliving and remembering when and where she found each piece of blue shiny taffeta or crushed velvet.

various fabrics, rabbit fur, chrome, mylar, bugle beads, sequins, embroidery, padlock, 240 x 353cm

Photograph by Terence Bogue

Purchased with the assistance of an Australia Council Crafts Board Grant, 1978

Jenny Watson began painting on alternative materials such as hessian, velvet, cotton and taffeta in the 1980's. Her use of red velvet in her 1993 Venice Biennale exhibition is a notable example of the use of fabric in her painting practice.

In her work the character of the fabric is never concealed, but instead contributes to the composition and brings what she calls a 'cultural quotient' to the work. The fabric featured in this artwork was purchased by the artist on a visit to India in 2008-09 and the image and text were painted there. The panel reads: "I was staying in a big, old fashioned hotel in India. There were birds, like crows, but bluer, and some of them were quite tame. These ones came down to the pool to drink and paddle, despite people sitting around."

acrylic on rabbit skin glue primed cotton and silk Pashima, 82 x 94cm & 179 x 130cm

Purchased with the assistance of the Robert Salzer Foundation, 2012

Artist Lucy Irvine writes about this work: "Covering Ground incorporates the cycles and patterns of landscape with the symbiotic cycles and patterns intimately present within my own life. It was inspired by my experience of a different kind of way-finding: as I considered the crossing of terrain and learning in landscape, I watched my young daughter go from crawling to walking.

The rhythm of the weave, the ever shifting, morphing form became a poetic material counterpoint to how my daughter’s world of knowing shifted as she negotiated the world around her anew. Technically, Covering Ground exemplifies my current weaving methods. My work juxtaposes expansive organic forms with industrially produced, utilitarian materials, primarily nylon cord, irrigation piping and cable ties. Larger pieces, like Covering Ground, are supported by an internal welded steel framework that acts as something of an assault course for the weave. The sculpture evolves in tiny increments allowing the form and concepts to emerge through the process of making." (June 2012).

irrigation piping, cable ties, steel and rust proof paint, 28 x 100 x 62cm (variable)

Photograph: Peter Pickering

Wool Corporation is constructed from recycled woollen blankets. The old blankets were used to achieve the woolly folds in the sheep’s fleece. The fabric was spray dyed, machine and hand embroidered and appliquéd. An early acquisition, this work strongly represents the link between Ararat Regional Art Gallery’s fibre art focus and the region’s reputation for fine wool production.

Born in England in 1933, Dorrough studied at the Eastbourne School of Arts and the Royal College of Arts in London. She arrived in Australia in 1961 and began exploring the possibilities of fabric collages, exhibiting the initial works in 1965. By 1976 the momentum of the craft movement had grown and a select group of fibre artists were being recognised through commercial gallery representation and exhibitions. At this time Dorrough was exhibiting at Bonython Gallery in Sydney and established her reputation for image making through machine embroidery, which was later pursued by other artists, most notably Annemieke Mein.

machine embroidery, dyed blankets, recycled woollen blankets, dyes, 130 x 305cm

Photograph: Terence Bogue

Barnacles is a sea-themed soft sculpture made from fabric, beads and thread. It was worked in 52 separate parts before all sections were joined together to make a freestanding cluster of barnacles.

In The Art of Annemieke Mein, the artist writes: "...Barnacles is influenced by my pleasurable childhood experiences at the beach...Some people have interpreted this sculpture as a provocative feminist statement, with suggestive labia, clinging babies and coils of hair. Nothing could have been further from my intentions. Yet it is interesting for me to realise that no shape in nature is entirely novel; so many forms are repeated constantly, others only rarely... ...Many reels of unravelled sewing cotton threads were twined and tied in place to simulate the surrounding swirling seaweed...in later years I felt this sculpture needed more ‘oomph’ and a ‘wet from the sea look’. Thus many cream, glass and pearl beads were hand sewn over the surface to catch the light and glisten like water droplets."

silk, wool, cotton, plastic, glass and pearl beads, 26 x 38 x 38cm (irregular)

Photograph: Geoff Parrington

Purchased with donations from visitors to the Annemieke Mein exhibition at Ararat Regional Art Gallery in 2011

Jean Lange was a pioneering South Australian basket-maker. She began her self-directed study of basketry during World War II when "baskets were difficult to obtain". Lange was one of the first basket-makers to expand the aesthetic and technical potential of basketry and worked to establish it as a recognised craft. She was an important custodian of skill and knowledge and she taught and encouraged many aspiring fibre artists in the 1970s.

In 1978 Jean Lange wrote, "I use mainly leaves from our garden and sedges, rushes, grass or grass stems, willow, runners from creepers etc. I now believe that any material that does not crumble when dry has potential...It is advisable not to be too dogmatic concerning baskets made from natural resources because the time of cutting and the place of growth may affect the end result".

Watsonia leaves, waxed linen thread, 25 x 47cm

Photograph: Terence Bogue

Roma Center was an abstract painter, working as Roma Thompson, who bought a loom and taught herself to weave, initially to take a teaching job. Her woven work was included in the National Gallery of Victoria’s, Craft Victoria 75 exhibition which toured to regional galleries.

Center’s work arrived at Ararat Regional Art Gallery in September 1975 and was subsequently acquired for the permanent collection. In the Craft Victoria 75 catalogue, Center applied the term ‘non-traditional tapestry’ to describe her work, which was woven on a treadle loom and would mostly not conform to what we would define as a tapestry today. Center created this non-traditional tapestry one year before the establishment of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in 1976 - an event that was preceded by tapestry exhibitions at public and commercial galleries and the pioneering efforts of independent artist-weavers, particularly in New South Wales.

linen, cotton, wool, mohair, alpaca, angora, synthetic fibre, 180 x 200cm

Photograph: Terence Bogue

Purchased with the assistance of the Ararat Gallery Social Committee

In the Heat of the Moment was woven on a scaffold loom with a ‘loose’ structure rather than a finished drawing or painting to work from. The tapestry takes the simple structure of nomadic rugs, integrating the patterning associated with rugs and carpets with the pictorial representation of drawing and painting. Small images are boxed around the edge in a patterned border, with the main image of a human face above a dome-like structure in the centre. The composition suggests a tension between personal and public identity and individual liberty versus social/political control.

Kate Derum has said of her Midnight Tapestries series that, “I have used this form to explore the hours of the night. It seems to me that in these hours yesterday, today and tomorrow are for a brief time together. Often when we try to throw light on a subject all that ever comes into sharp focus is the shadows, throwing into high relief the drama and necessity of opposites – public and private, dark and light, male and female, old and new, nature and culture.”

woven tapestry - wool, cotton, linen, 190 x 150cm

Photograph: Terence Bogue

Purchased with the assistance of the Robert Salzer Foundation, 2008