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It is hard to know where to begin, but one thing is certain. I am overwhelmed by the very positive response that 'Australian Bounty' has received from the viewing public and in the end, some funding bodies. Days prior to leaving for France with my family for my studio residency, I was advised by the Australia France Foundation that they were prepared to provide some funding to help with the cost of travelling the exhibition and indeed that they would like to host the exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Paris to commence on January 26, Australia Day 2001. For any of you who do not know where the embassy in Paris is, it is just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower, and the exhibition space is wonderful. Our quilts will be on display as the new ambassador hosts Australia Day. I have also met with the Cultural Officer several times. Both he and Andrea Faulkner, the First Secretary who attended the opening of the exhibition, are simply in a state of disbelief that this wonderful and very transportable art exists. So we have won a few converts I think.
The opening of the exhibition at Chateau de Chassy was well attended by many French quilters and indeed some of the European quilt press; France Patchwork, European Quilt (which is a new publishing venture, producing a wide-ranging quilt magazine in six different languages with a definite leaning to the more innovative quilt). There was a genuine buzz as people enthused over our quilts. I did so much talking in about four different languages that my voice was scarcely there at the end of the day.
The quilts were exhibited in one of the attics of Chateau de Chassy, a fourteenth century castle. This attic is no poky affair, but a soaring space lined with wonderful handmade bricks and ancient oak beams of startling size. Our vibrant work was hung in this space, each piece individually lit, and in the two towers that adjoin this space. The words 'magnifique', 'formidable', 'très très beaux' were words I heard frequently for the next six weeks as I sat with the exhibition. Sue Woods' 'The Red Dirt Road' hung on the three metre space that marked the doorway leading into the exhibition and many people as they entered the door after having studied this work, simply stood and gazed and shook their heads in awe.
The quilts then went to Galerie du Pontgirard, a sixteenth century mansion that has been made into a gallery of contemporary art. The works hung again in a wonderful open space of soaring proportions surrounded by a wonderful open garden. Again people enthused and many school groups came through, as they studied Australia in the Olympic year 2000. It is great to think that the quilts had the power to aid learning.
I returned to Europe in order to take the quilts to the European Quilt Festival in the Netherlands. (I had met the organiser at Chateau de Chassy and she had invited the quilts). Again they were much admired, and as this is a relatively new project, many of North Europe's art quilters walked through the door and took the time and trouble to express their admiration and awe at the diversity of technique and our brave use of colour. The winning European quilt was by Norwegian quilter Bente Vold Klausen, a lovely graphically bold work creating impressions of the tropical landscape - the workmanship in the quilt was masterful with the machine quilting exquisitely juxtaposing the imagery. Keep your eyes open for the work of this quilter.
I then took the quilts to the Autumn Fairs in Ardingly and Cambridge, UK, where 'Bounty' was the featured exhibition, again the response was wonderful despite the worst weather for many a year! And people took the time and trouble to express their heart-felt thanks to have been able to see the exhibition. The quilts were then exhibited at the Australian Embassy until the middle of March.
'Australian Bounty' was also seen in Australia at Heritage House and Garden, Geelong Victoria; New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale NSW; The Sydney Quilt Festival, Sydney NSW; and in New Zealand at the Fischer Gallery, Auckland.
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