To make (our ideas) visible and tangible, we need light and material, any material. And any material can take on the burden of what has been brewing in our consciousness or subconsciousness, in our awareness or in our dreams*.

Anni Albers, renowned artist and weaver, encouraged experimentation and playfulness in loom weaving through her practice and writings. Materials were centre to her philosophy and her understanding of weaving; she saw materials as a means of communication. In her weavings, she used diverse materials both organic and synthetic fibres, the later often new, industrial or experimental. Albers advocated listening to materials to ascertain how they conveyed ideas, touch, hardness, or softness and accepting accidents in the creative process; accidents that could lead to unexpected or innovative effects or new direction in weaving.

Weaving matter: material experimentation presents contemporary practitioners who are making their ideas visible by experimenting with diverse materials to translate political, social, personal or environmental concerns into weavings. Weaving matter was first exhibited at the Australian Design Centre in Sydney in 2023, and for this expanded exhibition at Ararat Gallery TAMA all artists have continued their experimentation with diverse materials to illustrate their innovation in exploring ideas.

All weavers have created intriguing, individual, innovative, and unique woven works that comment on current concerns with materials that take on ‘the burden’ of the concept and present contemporary stories in cloth.

Curator: Liz Williamson
Artists: Christine Appleby, Hannah Cooper, Blake Griffiths, Amanda Ho, Lise Hobcroft, Kelly Leonard, Jennifer Robertson, Jacqueline Stojanović, Jane Théau, Ilka White and Monique van Nieuwland.

* Anni Albers, Material as metaphor, unpublished panel statement dated February 25, 1982 and later published in Anni Albers: selected
writings on design, edited by Brenda Danilowitz, Wesleyan University Press, 2000. Page 73.