Recent Works: Brett Alexander.

This most recent exhibition Brett Alexander Recent Work: Recent Works,as the title suggests, sees Alexander downscale from his usually large installations to modest domestic scale ‘studies’ using textile and paper media. His use of handmade sa-paper, a type of ‘paper mulberry’ (Broussonetia Papyrifera), spans more than 25 years. It began in 1988 with his first research field trip to Chang Rai Provence in the Golden Triangle of Northern Thailand and a subsequent solo exhibition at Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, Bangkok. Since then he has made numerous return visits to Thailand and used sa-paper frequently in his collage and assemblage works. Returning to this material time and time again and combining it with various other media and images.

In this exhibition Alexander combines handmade and hand woven cloth with tubes of ‘looped networks’ commonly referred to as knitting.  For many years he has investigated modes of knitting outside of the traditional and widely known form of hand knitting using needles.  The forms of knitting he uses is often referred in Australia as ‘French knitting’ and internationally is referenced under a variety of names such as spool knitting, corking, i-cord, loom knitting and rake knitting. His focus is primarily on the circular form of this process.

It is evident from Brett Alexander Recent Work: Textile, Paper and Material Studies that Brett Alexander’s art practice is a celebration of textile craft.