Join artist Katie West in a practical making workshop to explore different ways of leaving marks, stains and traces on fabric using natural dyes from plants. In this hands-on workshop you will experiment with and learn about different natural dyeing techniques, using silk and an array of botanicals to create unique textiles.
Katie West is a Yindjibarndi woman, with an interdisciplinary practice that explores the renewal of human connections with and within the natural environment. West was selected as the winner of the inaugural Dominik Mersch Gallery / Victorian College of the Arts Award in 2017 with her Masters graduate exhibition piece ‘muhlu garrwarn / cool time hot time’. In this ongoing work, the artist engages with natural dyeing processes and text scores as ways to participate with the seasons. Through these repeated processes, her work moves from memory to the realm of instruction or storytelling.
Her installations grow with the seasons as quiet and powerful evocations of place. To begin, West dyes her fabric using plant material and an open fire in muhlu (cool time). Following this, solar dyeing and sewing with the fabric and thread created in muhlu becomes the focus in garrwarn (hot time). Text scores serve to both document this process and guide the process again in future seasons.
About the Workshop Series
ACCA’s Education Team have invited leading Australian artists to present small practical making workshops for adults to learn a broad range of approaches and techniques for art making. This workshop series is an ideal professional development opportunity for art educators and tertiary students.
Other workshops in the series include:
Drawing with Darcey Bella Arnold: Wednesday 31 July, 6–8pm
Reaction and Response with Richard Lewer: Wednesday 28 August, 6–8pm
All materials provided. BYO apron.
