GLEANINGS (SELF PORTRAIT)
2024
WINNER: 2024 KATE DERUM AWARD (KATE DERUM + IRENE DAVIES INTERNATIONAL TAPESTRY AWARDS)
Gleanings (self-portrait), 2024, silk, hemp, twined cotton, twined wool, waste threads, grass, hair, rice pearls, found metal loop, camellia petal bead, glass beads, tiny stone from Williamstown Beach; cotton warp, 15 x 20 cm.
Gleanings (self portrait) was awarded the major prize in the 2024 Kate Derum and Irene Davies International Tapestry Awards, a biennial prize exhibition held at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne.
This work continues my exploration of ‘gleaning’, the practice of gathering and repurposing things that would otherwise be discarded or overlooked. This requires paying attention to my immediate environment and being alive to the possibilities contained within apparently useless things.
‘Gleaning’ means to pick through fields once crops have been harvested, searching for any overlooked or discarded produce. With a basis in Old Testament scriptures, gleaning has at different times been protected by law in many European countries, where it was often viewed as a way for those living in poverty to provide for themselves. In many cultures agricultural gleaning remains an essential practice, often protected by specific social rules. A contemporary urban equivalent might be dumpster diving.
Here, I use gleaning as a methodology for studio practice. ‘Gleaned’ items are trapped within the body of the tapestry, suggesting tidelines of flotsam;. This accumulation, gathered from around me, includes thread waste from my studio (some loose and some twined into string), found and made beads, grass, hair. These gleanings, carefully selected and arranged, form a kind of map of myself; they take on an aura of preciousness, jewels made from rubbish.
