Gisborne textile artist Deb Williams with some of her work at the Add, Subtract, Transform exhibition at Tairāwhiti Museum. Photo / Kim Parkinson
Gisborne textile artist Deb Williams with some of her work at the Add, Subtract, Transform exhibition at Tairāwhiti Museum. Photo / Kim Parkinson
Add, Subtract, Transform is the latest exhibition by Gisborne textile artists (TARTS) Morva Thomson, Irene Smith, Bronwyn Furlan, Lina Marsh, Donna Rowan, Kathy Grimson and Deb Williams.
The exhibition has opened at Tairāwhiti Museum.
It is an eclectic mix of different approaches that celebrate the concept of altering fabric or fibre to transform original materials into something unique.
Bronwyn Furlan has been making textile art for many years in the upstairs studio of her Wainui home.
Her contribution to the exhibition is mixed media, eco-dyed wall hangings. Furlan gets leaves like gum and silver dollar, rolls these in fabric then boils it in a pot with iron added to it.
This produces outlines of the various leaf shapes in an earth-coloured palette, which she then stiches over in a variety of patterns.
Gisborne fabric artist Bronwyn Furlan with her eco-dyed wall hangings.
Deb Williams got hooked on textile art after taking a workshop in the 80s. Now she has retired, she is able to devote more time to her creative practice.
She has produced some colourful pieces, including a large sunflower and a number of hippopotamuses in bold colours, as well as a piece featuring four fabric squares based on her observation of the destruction of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Deb Williams' fabric art represents her response to the destruction caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Morva Thomson’s pieces result from time spent exploring the process of cyanotype on fabric and paper using botanical feathers and seaweed.
“I have used different techniques, including layering, double exposure, stencil, encaustic wax, inks, dyes species, tannin toner and stitch, which I’ve applied to the original plain white fabric and paper,” she says.
Thomson has also created two large hand-stitched spheres which explore texture and colour and fit within the exhibition brief.
Marsh has used a combination of slow stitching, hand felting, embroidery and crochet to create works based on petri dish microbial blooms grown from flowers from her garden.
These represent abstract happiness from her reflections on the things she would miss most about Gisborne when she and her family moved to Australia last year.
Lina Marsh has produced some circular pieces of fabric art for the latest TARTS exhibition.
Smith, Grimson and Rowan have each created works in their own individual styles.
The exhibition also features a collaborative triptych where each artist has made a number of squares and rectangles of different-sized fabric, many from an indigo dying process. They have then been carefully configured and attached to three canvases.
The TARTS group meets monthly to share ideas, techniques and processes, and to encourage and learn from each other.
