Patches of Light

In 2015 I began what has become an ongoing intergenerational collaboration with my mother in which we explore our ancestral connections to Tasmania. Our family is bound to Tasmania through six generations of labour, trade and artistic practice dating back to the colonisation of the island.

Peggy Pedley practised ceramics extensively in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. She now works mainly with textiles. Patches of Light, was our first joint showing in our hometown, Launceston. In the exhibition our individual art practices are distinct yet entwined, with Peggy’s ceramics and tapestry works appearing in a museum setting for the first time. The bounties of shipping and wool trade are represented through the materials used in the sculptural works –woollen fleeces, seaweed – while motifs of fencing and wire suggest the ramifications of carving up Aboriginal land to achieve colonial ambitions. A key work in the show was a repurposed wool bag, patched with silks from Peggy’s fabric collection.