ARTIST STATEMENT
Peace in Country, explores the connection between the European and Aboriginal knowledge, through the understanding of the land and mythologies that have been passed down through both cultures. To capture this oral knowledge, I incorporated wearable art as a contemporary image, combining colour as knowledge, interpreting Australian land and European concepts. The garment has the mystical feeling that surrounds the Australian bush juxtaposed with naïve, surreal European symbols. My artwork demonstrates how different cultural knowledge is distilled in time over thousands of years within the essence of symbols and landforms.
ARTWORK PROCESS
The fabric was made with hand carded wool, using wet felting technique to combine the fibres (all done by hand), this was chosen as it is a European style with a natural fibre. The felted fabric was then hand tailored to form a cloak representing the colonising cultural status. The sun was felted on and represents Mother Nature and how she watches over the earth. Hand embroidery and needle point felting was used to highlight details and symbols of the land and sky representing dreamtime stories.
