Artists dig deep for Subterranean exhibition.

Nine Australian textile artists have produced remarkable works in felt to honour the work of innovative German feltmaker Charlotte Sehmisch for Subterranean, a new exhibition opening at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles in July.

Sehmisch studied architecture in Weiner, Germany, before studying fashion in Halie. Since 1998, she has worked as a fashion and hat designer, created stage outfits, including hand-made felt hats and dresses, and taught at various European colleges. Her highly original sculptural techniques have attracted attention, with her work widely exhibited in Germany and France.

Sehmisch has worked with felt, other textiles and even building materials during her career to create her amazing work. She has used techniques such as lamellae, cracks, chambers and helixes to create architecturally based felt structures. Her approach is based in geometric designs.

“I presume my love for sculptural surfaces, three dimensional objects and geometrics has its origins in my architecture studies,” says Charlotte of her approach. “I am a huge fan of Bauhaus.”

The feltmakers invited to respond to Sehmisch’s work for the Subterranean exhibition were given the freedom to apply their own interpretation and felt-making techniques.

Timeless Textiles owner, Anne Kempton, was one of the contributing artists.

“The exhibition explores ideas of land and of layers through the medium of felt,” Kempton said. “Subterraneanhas been interpreted in many ways: geologically, socially, emotionally and structurally.”

TheSubterranean felt makers include Anne Kempton, Anita Larkin, Julie Brennan, Giselle Penn, Sachiko Kotaka, Jessica Forster, Catherine OLeary, Pam Hovel and Pam de Groot.

Subterranean runs from 11 July to 5 August, with the opening from 6 to 8pm on Thursday 12 July.

Breathing new life into the ancient art of felting

Accomplished artist Anita Larkin combines the ancient art of felting with contemporary found objects to create the evocative sculptures featured in ‘The Breath of Felt’ exhibition opening in May at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery.

Anita’s work reveals a different purpose for felt beyond its ordinary domestic association.

“Felt is a protective insulation material, for sound and warmth,” she said. “It is used in housing, in musical instruments and as industrial filters and abrasive pads. Felt also connects us all to our ancient nomadic past, like an eternal but momentary breath.”

The works in ‘The Breath of Felt’ exhibition use felt as symbolic narrative in its association with collected objects. The ordinary object is transformed into something curious and loaded in Anita’s art practice. The works are familiar yet delightfully strange, made with meticulous attention to detail, and display a witty sense of humour. They feature ping-pong bats apparently growing breasts, felted guns, hammers and teacups, a cradle made from felted female hips joining a baseball glove, and a felt cloth made with sheep and wallaby fibre. Felt as a breath.

Anita Larkin graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Sydney College of The Arts in 1993 and has since exhibited across Australia and internationally. Represented by Defiance Gallery in Sydney since 2002, she has a sculptural practice engaged in collected objects, casting parts of the human body, and working with the nomadic material, felt.

Anita has had 11 solo shows and had work in numerous group shows including Sculpture by the Sea (2002, 2003), The Wynne Prize AGNSW (2006, 2008), UWS Acquisitive Sculpture Award (2004, 2006, 2010) and The Blake Prize (2013). Her work is represented in private and public collections including Wollongong City Gallery, the National Textile Collection, The Australian War Memorial Art Collection and Westmead Hospital.

 The Breath of Felt exhibition runs from 10 May until 4 June 2017, with the opening at 6-8pm on 11 May 2017.

HOLDING: Contemporary fibre art

HOLDING: Contemporary fibre artpresents a unique and diverse range of fibre art. Showcasing 25 international, national and local fibre artists, the exhibition explores – through textile mediums and techniques – ideas around containment and ownership. The exhibition is curated by Anne Kempton Director of Timeless Textiles, the only dedicated textile fibre art Gallery in Australia.

From smaller and intricate works of art like that of American artist Shannon Weber’s Amulet 2016using wire hemp and stone, to larger scale works such as Newcastle artist Brett Alexander’s five metre high Every time I have sex I think I might die (PEP/Prep version) 2016,

this exhibition expands on Kempton’s ideas around the ‘vessel’ as a form in contemporary fibre art and in this context is represented both physically and conceptually. Kempton states;

“The title HOLDING can allude to a sense of belonging, homeliness, security and memories. For me it’s a gentle nurturing of our souls, our world and each other. The materials for each of these works of art have been created or reused, held (sometimes times for long periods of time) in the artist’s hands during the making process.”

The environment is also a source of inspiration for many textile artists; drawing upon the world around them using both natural and synthetic materials, each artist is the primary creator of their work, all of which are layered with personal and individual meanings. In the Shelter 2016 by Western Australian artist Nalda Searles combines parts of a salvaged doll with native plant fibres and grasses held together using her own unique form of stitching.

HOLDING brings together fibre artists from Austria, Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain and the USA as well as Australia and Newcastle revealing their deft ability with the fibre textile medium and the realisation of this in three dimensional objects.