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All I felt was fear and trepidation when I walked into the Toowoomba Art Gallery one Saturday afternoon with Jill Kinear, print maker extraordinaire and Diane Baker, manager of Toowoomba Art Gallery, to select quilts for The Darling Downs Art Quilters' exhibition, Progressions - Art Quilters Step into the Future. By the response to this new exhibition on the calendar for contemporary quilt makers, it seemed likely that more would follow. It was important to set the standard high as that would auger well for future exhibitions.
It was a hard decision to come to the final nineteen quilts. The three selectors decided that it was important for the exhibition to look like an art exhibition and not a quilt show. We felt that this is very important to the development of our chosen art field.
It was evident that these art quiltmakers used a huge range of surface design techniques. Seam allowances were no longer placed on the interior layers of the quilt, and painting, controlled bleaching and photocopied images were all accepted design elements. Materials used were not restricted to the traditional cotton, but fabrics sourced from all over the world and used in conjunction with such "unquiltlike" materials as lame, leather, threads and felt.
As we viewed the slides, we did not use our own personal artistic views to influence our decisions but aimed to gather together a group of quilts that encompass the spectrum of contemporary quiltmaking. This meant that the many styles and artistic perspectives were thoughtfully viewed and discussed before the final selection.
As I looked at the slides I kept the following criteria in mind. Originality: the quilt needs to have a sense of the maker. Uniqueness: it is not an imitation of work of an already famous quiltmaker or from a book.
On the downside of viewing slides for an exhibition like this, is the disturbing amount of work that is coming directly out of workshops. There is a huge amount of teacher influence on some quilts. My advice is: If learning a new technique take it with you and develop it into your own style. Challenge yourself and grow during the process; it might take any number of 'quilts' before you have work that has your own identity.
What really shocked me was the enormous amount of bad photography, so many unprofessional slides. Sending images of quilts hung on brick walls and cane room dividers and on busy wallpaper doesn't allow the quilt to be shown to its full merit. Having work photographed by a professional is very important in whether a work is accepted or rejected.
The 'Progressions' exhibition showcased work by the following artists: Jenny Bowker (2), Jenny Burgess, Marion Curry, Sue Dennis, Rosalie Duffield, Diane Firth, Helen Gray, Julie Haddrick, Pam Hill, Terri Keck, Loani Lee, Deborah McArdle, Alison Muir, Clare Plug, Alison Schwabe, Elisabeth Wilson (2), and Fiona Wright.
© Glenys Mann
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