Pathways: a walk through the Australian Landscape is an exhibition of contemporary quilts exploring the diversity of Australia’s urban and natural environments by ACT textiles group tACTile at Craft ACT Gallery 1 from 6 August. The tACTile group comprises ACT textile artists Dianne Firth, Jenny Bowker, Beth and Trevor Reid, Helen Gray and Beth Miller. A centrepiece of the exhibition is an 8 metre collaborative piece creating a landscape of panoramic scale from individual quilted sections made by each of the artists.
Jenny Bowker’s quilts take the viewer on a walk through Australia’s forest and beaches, and uses pathways and tracks through the landscape as a metaphor for moving through life.
Beth and Trevor Reid work together to depict Australian rivers and waterways as pathways of deep significance in Australian natural and cultural history. The Reid’s quilts highlight the role of waterways in the exploration and commercial usage of Australia’s interior.
Dianne Firth uses abstract imagery to interrogate the ideas and symbolism of the Australian landscape. Line, colour and texture are elements of a visual code that the artist employs to depict a sense of movement and change.
Helen Gray has explored Australia’s urban environments, using graphic elements drawn from street art. She is attracted to the symbols and energy of graffiti and its proponents, and to the life they describe on suburban pathways and alleys.
Beth Miller uses the quilting medium to explore water journeys and celebrate water as a sustaining force in the environment. Miller’s journey depicts water as a source of nourishment, trade and exploration.
IMAGE
Dianne Firth
Cockatoo Feather
2001
Cotton textile with polyester batting
130 x 130 cm
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