Drawn Threads is a contemporary lace installation exhibited in the 14th International Triennial of Tapestry, held at the Centralne Muzeum Wlokiennictwa, Lodz, 6 May to 7 November 2013. Through a peer review process led by Valerie Kirk, Head of Textiles, Australian National University, it was selected to represent Australia. In this work, an original lace technique became a vehicle for a contemporary response to a local environment: Wamberal Beach, situated on the NSW coast of Australia. The lace work is made up of hundreds of digitally printed lace coral motifs hand cut and machine stitched onto a soluble substrate. Drawn Threads explores unconventional approaches to traditional lace methods. A unique lace process considers the transient nature of (p)lace through material transformation. It views lace as a permeable boundary, one that considers broader global implications of movement and migration through the (im)materiality of dissolving surfaces (Millar 2011, Parikka 2018). The research contributes to the cultural agency of textiles in a broader art and design field, contemplating the textile surface as site for the projection of our collective cultural and political values.
Drawn Threads was exhibited alongside work representing 50 countries, and has been acquired by the Centralne Muzeum Wlokiennictwa, a highly regarded international textile archive. Articles on this work have have been published in a series of journals, including the International Collector’s Edition of Excellence in Fibers (New York) a juried exhibition in print.
