Between Rupture and Repair (series of nine), 2023. Revalued synthetic velvet, leather and perspex. Large pieces: 20 x 25 cm, medium pieces: 17 x 14 cm, 16 x 13 cm, Photography: Maylei Hunt
Between Rupture and Repair expands upon Peters’ continuing themes of textile waste transformation and mnemonic narratives to investigate concepts of material value, labour, politics, and identity.
A Victorian era night shirt provides a provocation to consider the suspended state of textiles between ruin and repair. Imagery of broderie anglaise trim coming away from the nightshirt’s neck and cuff are laser etched into unfamiliar waste materials - deadstock synthetic velvet, leather scraps and perspex off-cuts. Both the historic artefact and discarded materials exist in a liminal state where crucial circular decisions are made - to repair, remanufacture, or to dispose. The series departs from slow and laborious hand-making prominent in Peters’ past work, to introduce rapid-pace laser technologies to pursue and propel dialogue around what meaningful circular design and material culture can be today. Questions of value, skill and time rise to the surface.
The new direction emerging from this body of work include the embedding of Australian queer history narratives alongside sites of repair, asserting the agency of objects to document historically invisible stories. A significant artefact of Australian queer history provides a secondary line of enquiry - a mourning brooch made from the hair of Ms Anne Drysdale and Ms Caroline Newcomb, also from the Victorian era, c.1853. The mnemonic value of this piece honours the loving relationship between the two women and points to the revaluing of a fibre such as hair, into a precious object, now part of the State Library of Victoria collection.
This body of work forges new ground for the artist in expressing both a personal and political viewpoint through a committed practice of sustainable craftsmanship.
The development of this series was supported by the UNSW Making Centre.
Thank you also to Ellen Coates, whose blog had an incredible account of Ms Anne Drysdale and Ms Caroline Newcomb.
Between Rupture and Repair is part of the Transform: Shirts reimagined exhibition, curated by Liz Williamson,
Sturt Gallery Mittagong
23 July - 10 September 2023.
Opening: 11am, Sunday July 23rd, 2023 RSVP Here