Image: Jess de Wahls’ embroidery, platformgallery.co.
‘When I looked around at the other galleries in the Blue Mountains, they were all filled with the same two things: paintings and landscapes,’ Kelly Heylen, Curator of Platform Gallery located in Katoomba, told ArtsHub.
‘I wanted to start a gallery that showcased more breadth, especially the work of artisans, who are working in areas such as textiles, ceramics and contemporary jewellery, marrying traditional practices with contemporary themes,’ she said.
London’s Jess de Wahls’, whose exhibition Big Swinging Ovaries will show at Platform Gallery from 1-25 June, was exactly the artisan Heylen was on the lookout for.
‘Jess and her peers in London are the vanguard of the contemporary textile movement,’ said Heylen.
London’s Jess de Wahls. Supplied.
‘This is not your Nana’s embroidery’
Wahls’ is celebrated as the ‘enfant terrible of British textile arts’ for her bold and provocative artworks confronts femaleness, and the cultural and social notions of womanhood.
Wahls said: ‘I use my work to explore societal ideas of what it means to be a woman: from governments trying to restrict and legislate what women do with their bodies, to society judging women for both having and not having ovaries.
‘Traditionally ovaries are such an integral part of being a woman, and yet there are many other ways of being a woman, from being a transgender woman to having had reproductive organs removed surgically, to just being born in a body that doesn’t conform to any gender. What matters to me is that people make up their own mind and interpret my art for themselves, no matter what I intended. What matters is whether or not the work speaks to you,’ the artist said.
Jess de Wahls’ embroidery. Supplied.
Big Swinging Ovaries will coincide with Wahls’ delivery of two feminist embroidery workshops at Platfrom Gallery where participants will be guided through embroidery basics by the artist to help create their own feminist memento.
After opening her exhibition, Wahls will also deliver workshops in Brisbane and Sydney. The exhibition in Katoomba will be her only Australian show.
Heylen reflected that it was fitting that the artist used the medium of traditional ‘women’s work’ to highlight social justice issues that disproportionately affect women.
Jess de Wahls’ embroidery. Supplied.
‘I want to show through the gallery that mediums that were once purely functional, or dismissed as decorative handicrafts, can also be art, creating meaning and contributing to important social discussions in their own right,’ she said.
‘I’ve been saying about Jess’ upcoming show that “this is not your Nana’s embroidery”.’
Heylen commented that craft is no longer seen as folksy and parochial, but as a serious art form. ‘I’m excited to show the breadth and potential of textiles as art, especially to regional audiences who don’t always have the same opportunities as people living in cities to see such contemporary work,’ she concluded.
Big Swinging Ovaries is showing from 1-25 June at Platform Gallery, Katoomba. Visit platformgallery.co for more information.
