10 November 2008
ReCoil: Change and Exchange in Coiled Fibre Art explores the influences underpinning changes to contemporary Indigenous fibre art happening in many parts of Australia. The exhibition opens at the National Museum of Australia this weekend.
In highlighting the rich legacy of inter-cultural exchange behind the coiling movement, ReCoil: Change and Exchange in Coiled Fibre Art profiles the work of twelve Indigenous artists and three non-Indigenous textile artists who have worked together.
Organised by Artback NT: Arts Development and Touring, the exhibition features a wide range of conventional baskets to quirky, two and three dimensional, innovative sculptures, including a smaller version of the Grass Toyota that won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art award in 2005.
ReCoil explores coiled basketry technique and the way it has spread and diversified, establishing new fibre movements in a range of remote Aboriginal communities. This basketry technique was traditionally practiced by Aboriginal people of south-east Australia, and was transplanted by missionaries many years ago to Arnhem Land.
More recently, coiled basketry technique was introduced via workshops to the women of the desert regions of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. The movement has continued to spread rapidly along lines of kinship and via skills exchanges, and is now practiced throughout the remote regions of the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. As the weavers travel, the influence of coiling keeps expanding.
ReCoil: Change and Exchange in Coiled Fibre Art will be on display at the National Museum of Australia from November 15, 2008 to June 14, 2009 before travelling to the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. For more information about the exhibition visit: www.nma.gov.au
Exhibition Curator Margie West is in Canberra until Friday, November 14, 2008 and is available for interview upon request. For interviews, images and more information please contact Dennis Grant on 02 6208 5351, 0409 916 481; Caroline Vero on 02 6208 5338, 0438 620 710 or media@nma.gov.au
The development tour of the exhibition has been generously sponsored by Visions of Australia, an Australian government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia. Support has also been provided by the Northern Territory Government through the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, as well as by ERA and Rio Tinto.