Bio Heather Dunn
I have been making art all my life.
I completed a Diploma of Tapestry in 2011, which gave me the tools and process to start bringing ideas together across a range of media, but predominantly in textiles.
I have an intimate knowledge of fibre, having grown wool and alpaca for 30 years, and learnt to hand spin when 15. This knowledge gives a depth to my textile work and a respect for both the source of textiles and the often extensive process to bring them to fruition.
I am committed to my process, to the thousands of decisions made during the production of Woven Tapestry and the integrity and authenticity of my work. The less conventional media of textiles holds continuing challenges both in execution and educating people. This is through workshops, exhibitions, and advocacy of the validity of textiles in contemporary art.
Other media inform my textile work and often are resolved into exhibitions as well. Printmaking, drawing and occasionally painting all inform my work and add to the narratives that I seek to express around the notion of Place, our connections to place and our moments of time on the timelines of Place.
2020 was an extraordinary year for all of us. We all have stories to tell. Mine is of temporarily relocating to Fremantle in Western Australia to help my husband avoid constant quarantine, and the strictness of the WA border controls. It was hard, but an opportunity to see a completely different landscape. We missed the rolling hills and high country of the Tablelands, but were amazed at the diversity of landscapes and coast line that we visited.
This exhibition is about the Coastlines that we saw, the dazzling white sands, the weather, the turquoise shallows, and the hinterlands along it. The Tapestries also point to the issues that the environment faces over there with long term rain deficits from climate change and the ocean rubbish that lands on the west coast from locally dumped rubbish and that from oceans away.
I hope you enjoy my response to the West Coast.
I have been making art all my life.
I completed a Diploma of Tapestry in 2011, which gave me the tools and process to start bringing ideas together across a range of media, but predominantly in textiles.
I have an intimate knowledge of fibre, having grown wool and alpaca for 30 years, and learnt to hand spin when 15. This knowledge gives a depth to my textile work and a respect for both the source of textiles and the often extensive process to bring them to fruition.
I am committed to my process, to the thousands of decisions made during the production of Woven Tapestry and the integrity and authenticity of my work. The less conventional media of textiles holds continuing challenges both in execution and educating people. This is through workshops, exhibitions, and advocacy of the validity of textiles in contemporary art.
Other media inform my textile work and often are resolved into exhibitions as well. Printmaking, drawing and occasionally painting all inform my work and add to the narratives that I seek to express around the notion of Place, our connections to place and our moments of time on the timelines of Place.
2020 was an extraordinary year for all of us. We all have stories to tell. Mine is of temporarily relocating to Fremantle in Western Australia to help my husband avoid constant quarantine, and the strictness of the WA border controls. It was hard, but an opportunity to see a completely different landscape. We missed the rolling hills and high country of the Tablelands, but were amazed at the diversity of landscapes and coast line that we visited.
This exhibition is about the Coastlines that we saw, the dazzling white sands, the weather, the turquoise shallows, and the hinterlands along it. The Tapestries also point to the issues that the environment faces over there with long term rain deficits from climate change and the ocean rubbish that lands on the west coast from locally dumped rubbish and that from oceans away.
I hope you enjoy my response to the West Coast.