Australia Wide Nine

Australia Wide Nine is a touring exhibition showcasing contemporary textile practice by members of the Ozquilt Network from across Australia and overseas. Bringing together 35 works by 34 artists, each measuring 40 × 40 cm, the exhibition offers a compelling snapshot of the breadth and vitality of contemporary textile art.

Selected by a panel comprising artists Bernardine Hine and Edwina Cherry, and curator Jacquie Nichols Reeves, the exhibition highlights the diverse approaches artists are taking to expand and challenge traditional understandings of quilting and stitched media.

Working across a broad range of materials – including cotton, silk, paper, cardboard and unexpected elements such as shoelaces – the artists embrace experimentation, material inquiry and innovative making processes. Techniques span hand and machine stitching, digital printing, needle felting, gelatine printing, plant dyeing, collage and painting, reflecting the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of contemporary textile practice.

Collectively, the works explore personal, social and environmental themes through varied visual languages and individual perspectives. Moving beyond conventional definitions of craft,

Australia Wide Nine positions textile as a dynamic contemporary art form – one that is capable of expressing ideas through texture, repetition, surface and process.

Through intimate scale and rich materiality, the exhibition invites audiences to look closely and consider how contemporary textile practice can communicate stories, evoke memory and explore ideas through material, process and form.

Artists

Alison Muir – Alison Withers – Ann Head – Anna Brown – Barbara Mellor – Barbara Weeks – Bernadine Hine – Beth Miller Bev Butler – Carol Leitch – Cathy Jack Coupland – Daena Schofield – Dianne Firth – Fiona Gavens – Janine Judge – Jill Rumble – Judy Hooworth – Julie Haddrick – Linda Balding – Linda Steele – Linden Lancaster – Loise Parish Evans Lorinda Freeman – Lisa Walton – Lynn Hargreaves – Lynette Weeks – Sandra Champion – Sue Cunningham – Sue Reid Tania Tani – Tracey Bareli – Wendy Nutt – Wilma Cawley – Zara Zannettino