The Gallery in Mount Macedon is launching a new exhibition titled Fragile Fragments, featuring a range of textile artworks inspired by decay and the cycle of life in nature.
The pieces were created by Kyneton artist Elizabeth Harvey, who works across a broad range of textiles – including cloth, paper, thread, metal cloth, wire, and mesh.
She said that her works are inspired by nature and natural processes that she has observed, including in her own Kyneton garden.
“It’s always intrigued me … the changes of particularly leaves and plants as autumn comes and you see the changes in the colours and they drop to the ground and start to decay … the potential to see pods dropping to the ground [and] of new life coming from that cycle of nature,” Harvey said.
“I know there are a lot of people who can replicate nature in their work and it looks good … I’m not trying to do that. I’m using the leaf shape, or the pod shape, to influence my creativity.”
Harvey said that she is also influenced by the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which celebrates transience, imperfection, and impermanence.
She began working with textiles as a child, where her mother introduced her to crocheting, and she soon became fascinated with spinning wheels and hand spinning.
Metal cloth, mesh, and wire are textile materials that she recently introduced to her repertoire.
“I embroider it, I embellish it, you could sew on it – I can just use the skills I feel I’ve already developed over a number of years in this new medium.”
Fragile Fragments will be exhibited at The Gallery Mount Macedon from October 8 to November 3.
The opening of the exhibition will be held on Saturday, October 12.
Details: thegallerymtmacedon.com.au/
Oscar Parry
