Sensorial Loop 1st TTT
CURATOR Patrick Snelling
Sensorial Loop

The curatorial rationale for Sensorial Loop was to showcase the changing ideas and professional craftsmanship associated with contemporary textile practice in Australia. The use of traditional and machine technologies, the collaboration and inter-disciplinary profiles of practitioners, the trend of slow making and sustainable practice is challenging and perhaps shifting the perception of the discipline of textiles within established groups and educational institutions. There is a blurring within the definition of creative practice and Sensorial Loop aims to capture that shift. For this show, I am focused on promoting textile making, working with hands and related tools while also promoting textiles as a collaborative, contemporary practice, which is influencing other disciplines.

The increasing use of technology in creative practice is changing the status and capability of the textile practitioner and I viewed my curatorial role for the 1st Tamworth Textile Triennial as one of rapporteur; to examine, to report, to encourage debate around contemporary textiles, to educate and to engage with a group of creatives. There are few events in Australia that can demonstrate a tradition for promoting and sustaining a unique cultural heritage associated with the tradition and making of textiles. The original Tamworth Biennials and now the next iteration, the 1st Tamworth Tex-tile Triennial, is an event that is firmly positioned within the art and design calendar, attracting entries from a variety of creative disciplines, age groups, emerging creatives and established practitioners.

The process of selection, the development of a theme and the physical act of touring the country and speaking to over 30 practitioners in their homes, their studios and their workplaces, is a unique and rewarding experience for any curator. I found the process of listening and meeting face-to-face with creative people (not so fashionable in the age of social media), engaging, rewarding and democratic. As a curator, an exhibitor and a prac-titioner, I could identify with the artists and their passion for working within the textile discipline.

Sensorial Loop
Tamworth Textile Triennial
Sensorial Loop
1st Tamworth Textile Triennial
curated by Patrick Snelling

24 September to 26 November 2011

Tamworth’s textile exhibitions have grown in national and international stature attracting artist participation from all states in Australia, wide audiences and critical review. In doing so it has established an identity as a leader in this field.

The challenge has been to ensure that this exhibition continues to be foremost, to remain relevant, and continue to present work of the highest quality with a national focus. Curator Patrick Snelling’s primary curatorial focus for this exhibition is about promoting excellence and the diversity of making through the ideas that creative practitioners bring to the textile discipline.

This exhibition marks the beginning of an important new phase in the evolution of the Tamworth textile exhibitions. Previously known as the Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial, Sensorial Loop is the 1st Tamworth Textile Triennial. Whilst the rationale for the exhibition remains consistent, that is to provide artists and audiences with an overview of major developments in Australian Textiles, it is timely that we move from a traditional craft based event to presenting a more contemporary, questioning and inclusive form of textile practice.

The works in this exhibition reflect a recent blurring within the definition of contemporary practice; there have been fine artists enrolling in embroidery courses, textile practitioners working with architects and film makers. Sensorial Loop captures this shift and showcases some new directions in the field of textiles.

The Tamworth Regional Council must be acknowledged and applauded for its continued and ongoing support and its contribution to the realisation of this important national survey exhibition. I would like to acknowledge the support and contribution of Arts NSW, the Gordon Darling Foundation, and Visions of Australia in the development and tour of this exhibition.

Sandra McMahon
Director
Tamworth Regional Gallery

Image above
Elisa Markes-Young
The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced #37, 2011, (section)
Materials: textile/mixed media7 panels,
Dimensions of the complete piece approx.175 h x 375 w 3.5 d cm
Image credit:
Christopher Young

image below
Martha McDonald and Craig Woodward prior to the performance of The Weeping Dress, Saturday 3 septermber 2011at Tamworth Regional Gallery (detail) crepe paper. digital

Acquisitions from
Momentum 18th TTB
Above
Melissa Hirsch

Melissa Hirsch is a fibre artist/ sculptor based in Byron Bay. She came to art through her passion for the environment.

She describes her process as “holistic and labour intensive”, collecting, processing, weaving and on most occasions
installing the work. Hirsch’s work is process based. Beauty, form and the environment are her focus.

Image above
Melissa Hirsch
Bleached Sea Fan Coral, 2006
Fishing line
510mm x 320mm x 90mm
Image credit: Lou Farina

Below
Fiona Gavino

Perspectives Shift follows Gavino’s previous body of work
Inwardly Outbound (2006) which the artist describes as follows: “The collective history of a culture is the parent of the present mainstream paradigm. Mono-tonal ideas of identity perpetuated by popular culture inadvertently create the ‘alien others’.
Inwardly Outbound re-constructs the paradigm; the Diaspora of the marginalised is given strength to challenge the typical. The sculptures reject the spectacularisation of a consumer-based society. Truth seemingly becomes as ambiguous as a
discarded piece of rubbish. Perspectives shift, the inside
becomes out.”

Speaking about her new work Gavino said: “Perspectives Shift examines the typical and turns it inside out to offer a new way of looking at the constructed world around us. Perspectives Shift embraces life on the peripheries – the difference and
diversity, the momentum that brings conscious change and
inclusive communities. The inside becomes out, change
becomes possible.”

Image below Fiona Gavino Perspectives shift 2008 plinth cane 69 x 86 x 65 cm Purchased by Tamworth Regional Council.