Holding Space, 2017. 40 x 40cm each. Naturally dyed, woven, felted and stitched pieces. Silk, Wool, Cotton, Thread.
Emma Peters & Mary Burgess, RPA Arterie Artist in Residence.
‘Being the bearer of bad news is a terrible thing; sometimes you don’t know if you’ll have the words, the delicacy, the strength.’ – Emma Abdullah, ‘The Blue Box’, 2014.
‘Holding Space’ explores a conversation between textile artists Mary Burgess and Emma Peters through texture, colour and pattern – a discourse resultant of the shared understanding of one another’s approach to making. The mutual interest to understand humanity in their most exposed moments – grief, loss, hope and desire – and the ability of textiles to become objects of solace, inspires the work undertaken for the Arterie residency.
Burgess’ and Peters’ project responds to and is located within an Emergency Department room where difficult conversations are entered into. This room is where the most vulnerable moments in life are shared. Every participant in the discussion - doctors, nurses, patients and families – require wells of empathy, compassion and resilience to draw upon in the face of the complexities of life and death.
During the research phase of the project conversations were conducted with health care providers who have experience with breaking bad news to patients and their families. Unexpected perspectives were revealed. One doctor saw this potentially challenging experience as one of privilege. To share such a vulnerable moment in a patient’s life - to be able to bring sensitivity and clarity to the occasion – has the potential to alter a patient’s experience of their changed condition immeasurably.
With this in mind, Burgess and Peters have embarked upon creating a collection of textiles that respond to the need for ‘holding space’ for caregivers, patients and families alike while they transition through times of doubt, shock and anguish within the space.
The concept of Holding Space as the theme for their collaboration came to Burgess and Peters as the intent to create an artwork that supports a spacious feeling in the room and in the task of engaging in difficult conversations. Their design seeks to create a sense of gently supporting the space rather than filling it. The intent is a subliminal visual foundation for those who use and visit this room, so they can start to work with each other, possibly on painful and difficult questions, and have the courage to begin new conversations.
The artwork is inspired by a collection of words, such as compassion, resilience, courage, and incongruence, whereby techniques such as natural dye, felt-making, slow stitch, weaving and knitting are used to develop a new visual language of texture that brings a sense of calm and comfort to those who enter into the room of difficult conversations.
Image Credit: Emma Peters
Collaboration between Mary & Emma.
Mary Burgess and Emma Peters have been in a continual dialogue of making and meaning since first meeting in 2014. The years that followed have been spent sharing ideas and marvelling at the common threads that both artists address in their textile practices.
Mary Burgess is a Melbourne-based artist with a background in organisational change consultancy. She recognises the potential for cloth to memorialise family members who have died. In her Woven Memories practice she works with individuals and families who bring loved old clothes and fabrics to be made into new textiles that offer continuity, comfort and an honouring of the past. Burgess deconstructs the clothes and utilises techniques of loom weaving to realise this intent. Recently Burgess has worked on Reweaving Grief, a research project in collaboration with Hong Kong University Social Work Department and Tung Wah Hospitals in Hong Kong, and exhibited her first show Weaving Meaning in both Paris and Rome.
Mary Burgess
Website: Woven Memories
Mary Burgess’ Instagram: @maryhandweaver