
Seven Sisters – Fibre Works Arising from the West
05 May 2005 — 30 Apr 2006
Seven Sisters presented the work of a number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous fibre artists living in the western half of Australia. It was the first major exhibition to document the highly significant creative collaboration undertaken amongst these artists over thirty years. The works included in the exhibition had cultural significance on a number of levels. Non-Indigenous participants include some of West Australia’s leading fibre artists, whose methodologies of working with Indigenous plants and fibres (such as Xanthorrhoea, grasses, natural plant dyes and resins) gave material expression to the process of ‘replanting’ Indigenous culture onto the history of colonisation. Their works provided a complex tracing of social, historical and cultural interaction between Australian artists and the environment they worked from.
Indigenous works in the exhibition included some of the most significant art produced in Western Australia. The unique fabric figures made by Mavis Bolton, Jean Riley and Lizzie Riley in Narrogin surveyed traditional women utilising western networks to ensure the longevity of their cultural practices, and were featured in the first major Noongar retrospective at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, South West Central (January, 2003). Fibre basketry and woven figures from the Western Desert reflected the environment and culture indicative of this region.
CURATED BY
TOUR ITINERARY
- NEXIS Narrogin Exhibition Space05 May – 21 May 2005
- Goolagatup Heathcote Gallery01 Jun – 26 Jun 2005
- Bunbury Regional Art Gallery01 Jul – 07 Aug 2005
- Goldfields Art Centre01 Oct – 06 Nov 2005
- Vancouver Arts Centre22 Nov – 13 Dec 2005
- Katanning Art Gallery07 Feb – 16 Feb 2006
- Heritage House Cultural Centre18 Mar – 30 Apr 2006

