New project taps into the Deeper Voice of Textiles

The Deeper Voice of Textiles (DVOT) is a community-based project offering Hunter Region workers with a new means of creative expression through fibre art.

The Deeper Voice of Textiles project is the brain-child of Timeless Textiles Gallery owner Anne Kempton and is a vehicle for local Newcastle businesses to work collaboratively in a uniquely creative way.

Twenty local businesses, primarily employing men, are being invited to send their employees along to a series of free hands-on workshops, where local artist Graham Wilson and highly-regarded UK-based artist and basket weaver Tim Johnson, will help them to create objects using their skills, the tools of their trade and applying fibre art techniques. The men will be free to experiment with any medium (steel, wood, fibre etc.) to create their individual artworks.

Anne Kempton says she has wanted to create a project to provide men with a fun and creative outlet and provide them with a ‘voice’ in the local art scene. A meet and greet barbecue will kick off the DVOT project, to introduce the participants and stimulate ideas about their potential artwork.

“Newcastle and the Hunter have undergone tremendous economic change in recent decades that has seen the decline of manufacturing and heavy industry,” Anne said. “Many of the small to medium enterprises still working in these areas are under enormous pressure. We want to celebrate the strengths of local workers who are still practicing traditional manufacturing skills and techniques.”

Starting in March, DVOT will encourage men to create sculptural artworks using the familiar tools and skills associated with their trades, augmented by the guidance and inspiration of successful artists Johnson and Wilson. The resulting artwork will be installed as a three-day exhibition event – imagine Sydney’s iconic Sculpture by the Sea on a smaller scale – from 28th April. The sculptures will then be on display in the businesses employing the men who created them, with a map of the DVOT trail allowing people to view them in situ.

DVOT will showcase the tradition skills of Hunter workers, while offering them the opportunity to gain additional specialist skills in collaboration with the project’s artistic team. As Newcastle continues to evolve its cultural identity, DVOT will ensure that local men have a creative voice.

The project is sponsored by Newcastle City Council, Timeless Textiles Gallery and Regain, an Australian company that works on environmental solutions to waste management in the aluminium industry.