Stitched and Bound exhibition tours regional WA

Stitched and Bound exhibition tours regional WA

Regional Arts WA

This story was submitted by a member of the regional arts sector: The West Australian Quilters Association. We love sharing stories from the sector. If you want to find out how to submit your own stories, take a look at the Submit Your Story page. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Presented by the West Australian Quilters Association (WAQA), stitched and bound is a biennial exhibition featuring works by West Australian artists that challenge conventional quilting. 

The thirteenth exhibition opened at Midland Junction Arts Centre to much acclaim on 9 September and is now, for the first time, touring regional WA thanks to a grant from Lotterywest.

Image: Judith Wilton, Brush with Technology, (detail), 2022, hand dyed cottons, commercial cotton and synthetic fabrics, 140 x 72 cm.

The 45 works by 38 artists were selected from entries from all over WA by a panel of 3 independent jurors – Leanne Bray, Janet Holmes à Court and Lisa Walton. The works combine traditional and non-traditional quilted forms using a variety of materials and techniques. They explore a diversity of themes, including the artist’s personal histories, WA history and environment and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Margery Goodall’s Quairading Banksia is part of a series responding to the destruction of Western Australia’s natural landscape.  This work is inspired by the green-grey foliage and pink and yellow blossoms of the endangered Banksia cuneata. Also known as the matchstick banksia, this plant survives in small fragments of bushland in a region where 93% of bushland has been cleared.

Louise Wells‘ work If the Walls Could Talk investigates the history of Point King Lighthouse in Albany of which only the ruins remain. Between 1858 – 1911, three lightkeepers and their wives raised five, eight and ten children respectively in this four room cottage. At this isolated post, the families had to be both self-sufficient and resilient. Wells’ work asks what these ruins could tell us about their lives.

Julie McAllister’s Wool Bales examines the inextricable links between Australia’s burgeoning wool export market and the railway development in the late 1800s. This abstract work portrays their synergistic relationship. The metal zips juxtaposed with muted wool scraps represent the railways servicing pastoral communities.

Image: Marilyn Clark-Murphy (co-convenor) speaks at the opening of the exhibition at Midland Junction Arts Centre. Photo courtesy Midland Junction Arts Centre.

Regionally based quilters featured in the exhibition include Tracey Bareli (Goldfields-Esperance), Carolyn Scott (Goldfields-Esperance), Judith Wilton (South West), Barbara Weeks (South West), and Caitlin Stewart (Mid West).

Jaimi Wright of Seesaw, Western Australia’s Arts Magazine, visited the exhibition in Midland and said that ‘Stitched and Bound will turn your pre-conceived ideas about quilting upside down. The exhibition unpicks and upcycles tradition to catapult [quilting] into the 21st century’. 

During its regional tour, the exhibition will visit:

Please visit the website of each gallery to check opening times of the exhibition.

The West Australian Quilters Association provides the opportunity for West Australians interested in quilting to connect, socialise, share and preserve quilting knowledge. Their Contemporary Quilt Group is the natural home of anyone interested in art quilting, while members in the Community Quilts donate their time and skills to make quilts that are distributed to a wide range of charities.

Whatever your interest in quilting you will find others in WAQA who share it. The Association and its members are frequently involved in community events such as the Perth Royal Show. WAQA operates as part of Quilt Australia and works alongside other state quilting associations.

To find out more about the exhibition, visit the stitched and bound blog. To learn about WAQA and how to become a member, visit the WAQA website.