Wowed by Wearable Art

Susan Holmes with Figurehead in the exhibition now on at Tairāwhiti Museum, which tells the story of her life in textile art over half a century. Figurehead 1999 was runner-up in the Journeys section at the NZ World of Wearable Art. Figurehead has been silk dyed and hand painted, and is stiffened with fibreglass rods. Pictures by Rebecca Grunwell

An exhibition of wearable art by Susan Holmes is now on at Tairāwhiti Museum featuring sculptural one-off showpiece garments made for the NZ World of Wearable Art.

Award-winning Auckland fabric artist Susan Holmes established a broad repertoire of fabric art skills over her career. From an unassuming start of creating potato-printed silk scarves, her practice has spanned the worlds of craft, fashion and fabric art, culminating in a significant contribution to the field of wearable art.

Susan moved to Gisborne six years ago to be closer to her grandchildren. She brought with her a large collection of wearable art, which she had stored over the years.

Around 15 of her wearable art pieces are now on display so people can see her incredible creativity up close. From a startling sculptural piece based on the Frank Gehry Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris that was entered in the WOW architectural section to a flamboyant fiery red piece called Creative Flame commissioned by Nelson Council, this cleverly curated show takes the viewer on a trip down memory lane of Susan’s extensive career.

Susan is a thoroughly tactile and largely self-taught artist whose intuitive engagement with fabrics is the cornerstone of her creativity. The magic and artistry of her craft lies in the techniques and processes she has developed in the surface modification of cloth.

To please her parents, Susan followed an academic path when she first left school, but her heart was never in it. She has a master’s degree in nutrition and lectured for a time in food chemistry at the Home Science School in Dunedin.

Her passion has always been art and it wasn’t until she started experimenting with screenprinting on silk that she found her true calling.

“My friend and I were reading about the screen-printing process and I decided to try a little potato block print, so I cut out a little bird and stamped it onto the fabric — six weeks later, I quit my job and was supporting myself by selling silk scarves,” Susan says.

“I taught myself dyeing and everything I could learn about textile art.”

Susan sold thousands of one-off hand printed and dyed dresses, tops, skirts and coats at the prestigious Browns Mill Market in Auckland’s Durham Lane for more than a decade. She entered a few into the Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards and hadn’t realised she was successful until she saw a clip from the fashion show with her dress on the runway on a TV in a shop window.

“I  began to realise the fun of going into a show and a competition.

“It wasn’t until well-known fabric artist Malcolm Harrison suggested I enter the Nelson competition that I sent a few dresses down to be part of it. I didn’t get anywhere that year, but they must’ve noticed me because the next year they asked me to be a judge.”

In 1992, she won the Silk Award and was runner-up to the Supreme Award with a dramatic piece called Rainbow Warrior. Only the wings of this piece remain; she sold the rest of it as a glamorous ball dress. They can be seen at the entrance to the exhibition draped as a sculpture over the title board.

“WOW was wonderful to me. I got to know them and how they showed things. It was like being part of a big exciting family.”

WOW moved to Wellington in 2005 and Susan continued to enter each year until 2015  — when she was in her 70s.

Around 20 of her pieces were on permanent display at the museum in Nelson, but when that closed, they started to send them back to her, hence the growing stack of garments in her basement.

“I’m looking for homes for them,” she says.

“Each was my baby at a different time. When I’m making them, I fall in love with them.

“I used to allow two months to make them including two weeks of designing.”

Montana Wines commissioned an extravagant gown design for their 25th jubilee of being in Marlborough.

Susan has exhibited in Orange, Australia at a yearly textile event called Textile Fibre Forum. It is an exciting  and inspiring experience for anyone passionate about textiles, with workshops, exhibitions, trading stalls and social functions.

“I was an overseas tutor and just loved meeting the other tutors from all over the world as well as the fabric enthusiasts that I  was teaching. So inspiring!”

A book based on her long career is on sale at the exhibition for those interested in learning more.

■  Susan will be giving a talk at the museum about the artistry of her craft and the garments on display on Sunday, September 10 at 2pm.