Diverse pieces linked by filaments in new exhibition.

The diverse works of 10 members of the Fibre Artist Network (FAN) share a common theme in Filaments, an exhibition opening at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery in October.

Filaments, from the Latin for threads, showcases the inventive work of established and emerging artists who are members of the mid-north coast group FAN.

Formed almost 20 years ago, the group aims to produce work in a contemporary style, exchange ideas, support each other, conduct workshops and exhibit annually.

For the Filaments exhibition, each of the artists has projected their own meaning and associations of filaments. The movement of threads through multiple hands gives a tactile emotional quality to the works.

One offers a spectacular show of wildflowers, with fine filaments seeming to bend in the breeze. Another sees lichen filaments being dispersed by the wind to land and grow again. The physical act of producing felt from fibre is featured. Science also plays a part, as slender continuous natural (silk) or synthetic (metallic) fibres give conceptual meaning to filament.

Rising out of these diverse filaments are the sometimes fragile and frail stories of the artists’ lives and journeys. The use of cloth, colour, shapes, stitches and dyes add sensitivity to the materials used to allow the artists to communicate visually with the viewer.

Filaments is showing between 2 and 27 October, with the opening between 6 and 8pm on 3 October.