Open House: Tamworth Textile Triennial

The third Tamworth Textile Triennial, curated by Glenn Barkley, will open at artisan (Queensland’s home of craft and design) on Saturday 23 February at 2pm.

The Tamworth Textile Triennial, held every three years, show-cases the best of textile art from across the country, attracting artist participation from all states in Australia and celebrates the open-ended, porous nature of textiles practice today.

The exhibition, curated by Sydney-based artist Glenn Barkley who has previously worked as senior curator of Museum of Contemporary Art, will see more than 30 artists represented in the exhibition.

Artisan CEO Claire Sourgnes said: “The exhibition celebrates the diversity of textiles and true to its name, it embraces the process of creating, talking and exhibiting – with artists joining together with visitors as equal participants in an Open House where all ideas and responses are welcome.”

Curator Glenn Barkley links the exhibition to our everyday lives, explaining that in recent years, there has been a global shift to handmade.

“Paradoxically, it has happened at a time when the screen has come to dominate everyone’s lives; when ‘downtime’ is the time spent waiting while we download a movie from the internet. That precious interlude has become a place for making.”

“While the internet can dull the mind, it also enables us to make – or at least to see how to make – virtually anything, with YouTube art tutorials available in the comfort of our own home.”

“lnstagram has made it possible for art and craft makers to survive in a global marketplace. Something made in Newcastle can now be premiered online instantaneously to audiences from Paris to Hong Kong. For artists, this has led to an in- creased awareness both of the handmade and of the conceptual and social limits of craft production.”

Open House: Tamworth Textile Triennial introduces a group of artists who have not previously exhibited in the triennial. All are linked in some way to a sense of broader engagement with things outside of themselves and their studios. Many celebrate the process of belonging that comes from working with other artists, while others take on wide-ranging issues such as the landscape and the environment, and the artist’s place in a world beset by environmental, social and cultural upheaval.

Bringing it all together is a kind of openness that comes through exhibiting, talking and creating which can involve both artist and viewer as equal participants. The making process is equally as important as the works themselves, and the conversations while creating and showing create an open house where all ideas and responses are welcome.

Open House: Tamworth Textile Triennial will be officially opened by the exhibition Curator Glenn Barkley at artisan, 2pm Saturday 23 February. The exhibition will run until 27 April. Admission free.

artisan, 45 King Street, Bowen Hills Q 4006
23 February – 27 April 2019
Opening event, 2pm Saturday 23 February