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S usan Fell-Mclean
the Garden Path
Finds
Silk, felted wool, wire, stitch & shibori in wooden museum boxes, 2006
30 x 40 x 15cm (each wooden box)
Susan’s work varies from small sculptural forms and flat wall pieces
to large installations occupying interior spaces. She has recently
shown a solo exhibition of her works at Yarra Sculpture Gallery. She
works with textiles, manipulating age old processes in contemporary
interpretations. Silks, cottons, felted wools and other fibres are
stretched, wrapped, stressed, stitched and dyed. They are combined
with wood, copper wire, wax and other materials to explore concepts
of palimpsests and sense of place. Susan has been involved in
several contemporary International conferences: (as presenter) The
World Batik Conference Boston, Massachusetts, USA and KLIB Kuala
Lumpur International Batik, both in 2005. The same year, she
exhibited in The World Shibori Symposium in Melbourne. In 2003 at
the Museum of Industrial Archaeology and Textiles, Belgium at the
Ghent Centre for Artistic Confrontation, she exhibited and conducted
workshops, for which she was awarded an Arts Victoria Grant for
Professional Development. That same year she completed an Artist
Residency at Cumnor House School in Sussex UK, felt making with
children and teachers.
These works are a
response to my research
journey in Herculaneum
looking for the palimpsests
of Italy. In 2006 I
completed a Master of
Visual Arts Degree, and
was very fortunate to be
awarded a studio position
in Palazzo Vaj, the
Monash University Study
Centre in Prato in Tuscany.
My deconstructed and
constructed textile pieces
help us to journey back to
ancient Roman times,
and to imagine the ‘finds’
of excavations. The
colourants for these shibori
pieces (local Tuscan vino
rosso, noce, cipolla and
porcini), were used as a
metaphor for the way in
which the mud from the
volcanic devastation
preserved the daily life of
an ancient civilisation, the
archaeological excavations
of Herculaneum revealing
its secrets.
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