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This small selection of abstract 2D works from TAMA’s textile collection features some of the movement’s leading artists, from Lois Densham in the 1970s, to Sera Waters today. The works demonstrate the wide range of techniques available to contemporary textile artists from traditional blackwork embroidery to unusual methods such as airbrushing. Linked through their abstraction, these works are also bound by shared themes including landscape both known and imagined, leading the viewer into worlds that have the potential to comfort, disturb and intrigue.

Obsessed: Compelled to make explores the preoccupations that drive the creative process, providing an insight into the working practices of fifteen artists from across Australia. Moving beyond the finished work, this project tells the hidden stories of making, uncovering the artists’ inspirations, day-to-day studio experiences, hours of expertise, and the joys and frustrations of obsession.

Obsessed: Compelled to make is an exhibition that is touring throughout Australia, accompanied by a series of films. The 15 artists are Gabriella Bisetto, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Greg Daly, Honor Freeman, Jon Goulder, Kath Inglis, Laura McCusker, Elliat Rich and James B Young (Elbowrkshp), Kate Rohde, Oliver Smith, Vipoo Srivilasa, Tjunkaya Tapaya, Louise Weaver and Liz Williamson.

“Obsessed: Compelled to make showcases the awe-inspiring creativity and innovation of the maker and at the same time focuses on the fundamental human need to make.” Lisa Cahill, Australian Design Centre.

Obsessed: Compelled to make is an Australian Design Centre (ADC On Tour) national touring exhibition, presented with assistance from the Australian Government Visions of Australia program. The Visions of Australia regional exhibition touring program supports audience access to Australian arts and cultural material, with a particular focus on tours to regional and remote Australia.

Australian Design Centre is assisted by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. Australian Design Centre is assisted by the New South Wales Government through Create NSW, and the Australian government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Settling in Moyston in 1984, Nanette Bourke is a prominent figure in the Ararat and Grampians arts community, perhaps best known as a member of the ‘Grampians Four’ group of artists. Bourke has been a printmaker since the late 1960s, having studied at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney, and at art societies and the CAE in Melbourne before relocating to Western Victoria.

Inspired by the woodcuts and linocuts by Melbourne artists of the 1920s and 1930s – Napier Waller, Murray Griffin, and especially Eric Thake – Bourke embraces the sophisticated results that can be achieved in this medium.

Bourke holds a deep affinity with the natural environment, which is integral in her artistic life. Many of the works in this exhibition are inspired by the natural environment of the Grampians. In contrast to the often joyous depictions of Australian native flora, Bourke’s imagery also presents a poignant reminder of humankind’s negative impact on the environment.

‘Baskets have always been an integral part of our lives. What is the attraction? Is it the materials they are made from, or is it because of their individuality from being ‘hand’ made without the use of any mechanical device?’ Virginia Kaiser, Textile Fibre Forum, No. 27, 1990.

Ararat Gallery TAMA has specialised in the collecting of contemporary textile fibre art since the mid-1970s. The Gallery holds a small but significant sub‐collection of Australian basketry and objects which employ basketry weaving or construction techniques. These objects provide a sound overview of contemporary Australian basketry practice from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, with many of these earlier works on long-term loan from the Victorian State Craft Collection. Later acquisitions in 2010 and 2011 from Nalda Searles, Virginia Kaiser and Nancy Duggan extended the breadth of the sub‐collection, while in 2012 TAMA also commissioned Large Eel Trap by one of Australia’s foremost First Nations weavers, Yvonne Koolmatrie.

This exhibition celebrates the unveiling of TAMA’s most recent acquisitions, a trio of baskets by Lisa Waup, an artist of Gunditjmara, Torres Strait Islander and Italian heritage. Looking Through Time (2017), Spirit (2015) and Mixed Bag (2019) showcase Waup’s distinctive weaving practice and highlight themes close to her heart: tracing lost history, ancestral relationships, Country, motherhood and time.

Inga Hunter is a mixed-media artist recognised for her contribution to the development of textile and fibre art in Australia, particularly in the field of experimental dyeing and batik. Works from the TAMA Collection exhibits the gallery’s prized works by Hunter including the sub-collection, Miniature Robes from the Archives of the Imperium, 1986-1989 and two original Work Journals which includes developmental designs of many of her works on display.

Most of the works on display come from Hunter’s invented world governed by The Great Court of the Imperium, a large body of delegates from three planets presided over by an elected head. Delegates wear robes to symbolise their role in society, with each robe designed for its wearer with an identical miniature copy made to be stored permanently in the archives. When the wearer either dies or relinquishes office, the robe itself is destroyed, leaving only the miniature, which is what you will see in this exhibition.

In 2020, Ararat Gallery TAMA commissioned MDP Photography and Video to create two stop-motion videos to showcase the wealth of sketches, notes and swatches held within the Work Journals. We are pleased to share the results with you here:

Drafting Sheep is a collection display that celebrates the work of Lionel Lindsay. Born into an artistic family in Creswick, Victoria, Lindsay (1874-1961) was, without doubt, one of Australia’s great black and white artists – as a printmaker his achievements remain arguably unrivalled in Australian art of this era.

Almost 50 years ago, Lindsay’s niece Felicity Shaw generously gifted the work Pheasanox Magnolius by her famous uncle to the then newly established Ararat Gallery. Shortly after, Lindsay’s son Peter gifted a further number of his father’s prints including the iconic Drafting Sheep, effectively establishing the Gallery’s collection.

Drafting Sheep sits within a rarer series of Lindsay’s nostalgic Australian bush scenes from 1946-50.  Lindsay was a lifelong and vocal opponent of modernism, however, by the late 1940s, his generation of traditionalists had been usurped by an ascendant generation of young modern artists.

Lindsay weathered these profound changes in Australia’s cultural landscape with difficulty, but today we can view the nostalgic realism of these three prints with hindsight and appreciate Lindsay’s unyielding commitment to his art, as revealed through his late-career mastery of the complex mezzotint process.

The White Fan, also included in this collection, was widely lauded for its dramatic contrasts, fine detail and technique at the height of Lindsay’s skill, while The Great Door, Burgos notably drew comment from Anglo-French writer and historian Hilaire Bellac that “it optimised the whole history of the Catholic Church”.

Further to the image of this famous Spanish Cathedral, this exhibition also includes etchings depicting scenes from Tunisia and India likewise from Lindsay’s 1928-30 travels – Lindsay travelled widely throughout his career including North Africa and extensively in Europe.  He maintained markets in Australia, the United Kingdom and beyond for his prints, and together with his more famous brother, Norman Lindsay, he exhibited and published books and print folios through Colnaghi in London.