2.9 More notes on Fashion and Aiden Visits In the fibre of her being.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 9 of Hung Up Season 2. I’m Aiden. I’m Matt. This week we’re talking about textiles, fashion and a really sick exhibition in Fairfield. But first up we’re gonna do a fit check. Alright, you go first. I was gonna say you go first. Okay, I’ll go first. Okay. Starting from the top. We’ve got the same haircut as the last..

Time we checked in. But it’s just a little bit longer and people keep commenting on it. So just had like nice straight.. I kind of look like a guy from like the DMAs or something. Yeah, well and also it looks like I think like a week ago when you were stressing about it. It was like in a weird growth phase and now it’s like short, you know, it’s gotten past a weird moment. Let the record show that I don’t recall stressing about it. You’re stressing bro.

And then below that we’ve got um.. This uh Nike SB jumper. I actually don’t know what SB stands for but.. Skateboarding dude! That’s why I called you a skater today. Now I get it. You’re a fucking idiot. Fucking L. Well, yeah. Oh.. Yeah, Sam, my old flatmate got this for me from Vinny’s where he’s working. It’s great. It’s like three sizes too big for me.

It’s nice. And then we’ve got um.. My same hexagon belt. It’s like the same fit basically. It’s the same fit but people don’t remember. And then I’ve got.. So I got this like sick like Western vibes belt and then my favorite pair of pants in the world which have actually just had their like.. I’m gonna call it their second last wash of their lifetime.

I wash them because I keep dropping like crap on them. I don’t wear them at work but you know things happen. Um.. And baby, no socks, no underwear on today. It’s a Sunday. Also, we’re not allowed to wear shoes in your room anymore, right? Oh, is that a rule? Yeah. I thought that’s what you said. You were like shoes off and so now it fits a shoeless. Like whatever.

It’s fine. It’s a level playing field. It’s a La Nina thing. Like because it’s raining all the time. I want people tracking mud in here. Fair. Fair. Alright, your turn. My turn. Beyond Skate Shop Blue Socks. Skate Shop in Perth. Very cool. Carhartt Cargoes. Just the straight up black ones. With like the drawstrings. Yeah, with the drawstring. I never like tighten them or anything but I’m really enjoying these pants at the moment.

I’ve got this like, um, shirt from Depop. It’s like a white shirt and it’s like got a big loud logo on it. I’m trying to remember it without looking at it. Mobile. Oh, it’s like sponsored by mobile but it’s like mobile or whatever. But it’s like what does it say? Like St. Patrick’s Day Run for the Blind. 18th annual. Oh, 1997. Yeah.

It’s beautiful. Yeah. And then on the back it’s got like all these funny like I guess American sponsors. Like wait, do you want to do a spin? We’ll read some off. We’ve got, um, Hoolahans. We’ve got KOST 103.5 FM. The Daily Breeze. It’s so cute. True. I’ve got some, uh, I should pay for that thing.

I think it was like 40 bucks. I don’t know. I want more. But I got some nice, um, also in my hair, some nice Arabe curl cream. Do you know that brand? No. So this shit’s called like Arabe and I was thinking, it’s kind of like an old world thing. I think it’s from like the 90s. Don’t really know. But he was like the first guy to like turn hair products into like big fashion.

So like what he did was he’s like, I want this shit to look really nice. Like the packaging and the, uh, like it’s in this like nice green bottle and it has like a emblazoned like logo or like a badge on the thing. Like it’s like three dimensional. Yep. And yeah. So he was like, yeah, embossed. Yeah. So he’s like, I think he’s a French guy.

And he became like in that scene of like, you know, hair care products for like the rich and famous. And he also put these like really nice scents in them. Like that was kind of one of his vibes. He’s like, it’s not just, it’s not just the look. It’s also the smell. Wow. So yeah, I’m fucking with some of that today. Cool. I didn’t actually add any in. I just, um, had some in yesterday. Okay. And then just a little bit of water. Cause it’s like too expensive to. True.

I think it goes for a couple of days. You’re only taping it. No one can tell. Like you’re just taping a podcast. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So yeah. There’s a little story about my hair. Okay, great. Fit check complete.

All right, cool. Yeah. So yesterday I was out in Fairfield at the Fairfield city museum and gallery for a textiles exhibition called in the fiber of her being. It was really sick show curated by Sarah Rose. Um, you couldn’t come. You were busy doing some of your own textile shit that I want to hear about. Um, so I had to take our roving correspondent, Adam D who’s your, uh, body double, um, indistinguishable, indistinguishable. Um, yeah. So I want to get into that. I’m going to give us like the, the boots on the ground take, and then they produced a really lovely, like catalog of images and words. So you’ve got like a kind of mediated take. It’s great. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I came over to your place this morning for coffee and breakfast. And I just saw like sewing machine workspace, ironing board, like 30 pairs of pants. Yeah.

Um, so yeah, what the fuck were you doing yesterday? Why couldn’t you come to the show? Um, I actually somehow like, um, actually got the job of, um, doing alterations for a vintage shop downstairs. I’ve been chatting to this guy, um, Baz at the wild merchant. And, um, yeah, we just like, we’ve, we’ve been talking about clothes and fashion and textiles literally since he moved in there a couple of years ago or whatever. And he was like looking at my, this same pants from the fit check, my favorite pants. And he’s like, show me, show me that.

And I showed him my, um, the hem and he’s like, do you want some work doing that? And I was like, yeah, fucking yes, I do. So that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve just been like folding up hems and like ironing them. And then like, I just did the first run of like, I think five or 10 hems like sewn on and they’re looking good. I like it. He wants like stuff. He’s got like these, uh, army issue pants that we’re turning into like stubbies.

Yeah. They’re like, what’s that color? Like it’s a very like iconic Aussie color. Yeah. I was saying it like you’re fucking, yeah. It’s like workman’s blue. Yeah. Workman’s blue. Exactly. With your boots and your fucking beer. It’s perfect. Yeah. They’re beautiful. They’re nice. They’re totally going to be around in summer. True. Yeah. So we’re going to see a whole bunch of like nice butts walking around with, with my hems under the butt. Yeah. Fuck yeah. Dude. Quick side point. Yeah. I was at cafe this morning and I saw like a guy like with his dad. Yeah.

It’s like the biggest pair of denim shorts I’ve ever seen. But like, here’s the twist. Yeah. He was like a lad. So he had like big bum bag, like Nautica hoodie, big like tribal esque tattoo up his calf. Yeah. Like maybe five or six inch shorts. Whoa. So fucking tight. That’s so funny. Like they were absolutely like anaconda gripping his like peachy white thigh. And then he had like slick shaved legs and like TNs or some kind of TN thing. What the fuck? And like a black eye. Whoa.

So, but you know, have you seen that shit before? That was like a kind of like an, I think a older generation of like lad. Yeah. You know, I’ve been around some people like in the UK that kind of fucked with that. Like the really tight shorts. I’ve never seen that before. Oh really? That’s so cool. I think you’re going to say guys walking around with a black eye. I was like, yeah, I’ve seen that. Yeah. You’ve seen that shit, but the really tight shorts, but you’re like a gangster. Yeah. That’s crazy. Yeah. So I guess also like, I mean, I don’t want to go on too many tandits, but we were like in Parramatta on, was it Thursday? Thursday night. Yeah. For like Parramatta lanes to see like,

we saw like a bunch of people, but I really wanted to go see like JC, A Girl, Della Wu. Yeah. And we were just fucking like gobsmacked the whole time by just like the fashion. Yeah. Like it was fucking awesome. The outfits were fucking 10 out of 10. Like everyone had a sick outfit on. Yeah. But also it didn’t feel like when you’re in like a new town pub where everyone’s like judging each other’s outfits. Like it just, everything was cool. You know, it was just totally fine. We were totally fine. They were totally fine. Everyone that like we saw was just looking fly as fuck. It was so cool. And like, um, I was like drawing our attention to everyone’s shoes. I was like, look at those shoes. Look at those shoes. Look at those heels. Look at those fucking clogs. It was awesome.

Yeah. You said something that was really nice on the night that I’ve been thinking of a little bit, which was, you know, cause it was definitely a like streetwear dominant aesthetic, right? Like way more than you would see in Newtown on Saturday night. Yeah. And it really felt cool to, to feel this like cultural, I don’t know, just like there’s a, cause sometimes it feels like you’ve got Newtown or nothing. Like Newtown’s such a dominant culture.

Yeah. That aesthetic is just, yeah. Um, so it was really nice to go to Para and see like this other flourishing, I guess, could you call it a subculture? A scene or something. Yeah. Like a scene. What did I say? Well, you said like this shit is actually happening here. Like the streetwear stuff. You’re like, it makes so much sense here. It’s happening here. What I said was that like, like, yeah, like, fuck, what did I say? What I said was that, you know, these outfits are actually being enacted.

Yeah. Like, and like that the streetwear stuff was actually going on. Whereas like, I don’t know if, if I wore that in Newtown, it would kind of feel like I was playing at that or something. Yeah. Maybe. Which I mean, that, that isn’t necessarily wrong or something. I mean, it’s hard to say, but you know, it felt really nice to have that like cohesion. I think that’s what I was feeling. Like there was a real sense of a scene and like that’s a huge part of fashion, right?

Totally. It’s like, you know, this like communal sense. Totally. Yeah. And yeah, but that was just, I mean, do you remember, is there any like fits that you wanted to talk about? Yeah. Let’s pull a couple out of the old brain bank. Like there was one guy that was wearing like this really beautiful, like oversized flannel shirt with like contrasting flannel patterns on it.

Yeah. And then like similar pants to what you were wearing. Like, I think he might’ve had drawstrings at the bottom of them too, but then just these like chef’s clogs. Yes. You know, and then there was guys there, like mates of his that were wearing like full on like Nike, almost like a bomber jacket and like sick techie pants and like Nike TNs or something.

Um, there was one guy, um, that was wearing like, um, from the bottom up, it was like, um, one of those shoes that I’m, I keep talking, I keep sending you pictures of these shoes. I’m like, should I get these ones? Oh yeah. They’re like Italian loafers. They were like, yeah. So they were wearing like loafers and then, um, white socks and then like beautiful brown, like khaki pants and then a white singlet and like a sick shirt that was kind of like half off, you know, like, and then like a beautiful necklace and then sick big ears.

You know, and everyone looked so fucking happy and so calm and so happy to be there. And the energy was just fucking beautiful. It was so cool. A bit of a post COVID thing maybe. And like, I guess this like lanes thing, like it was in a kind of, I don’t know, what do you call that? Like an open air space. It wasn’t in a club or anything. Yeah. Had a bit of like a community. It was a bit tacked, like you have to get checked in at like this shitty festival.

Yeah. Yeah. It felt like a mini festival and it was in, they had like one funny food truck and then it was in like the kind of big plaza that they have at the front of an office building or a library. And then like the city workers who were there, like we were joking, they were like, all seemed really stoked to be there. I was joking. I was like, they’re like normally just like picking up cigarette butts with like two pigeons.

And like tonight it’s like this sick crowd of like happy, beautiful people. They were like filming. Like the dude was like in a council cleanup and he was like recording. It was beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. It was a really special night and it was really cool to kind of, I don’t know, this whole Western Sydney thing. I don’t really know how to categorize. Like I’m not from there. I don’t really like, you know, I’m not even from Sydney.

Sure. But I know that it felt like it definitely felt special and people felt like they’d been working for something. Yeah. That they were creating something. Yeah. So many people that like knew each other. Yeah. Like you bumped into people we knew. Like it was really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But like, it’s funny because that night was a good like point to like check in on our like fashion radar, our fashion graph.

Like we’ve always been talking about fashion since like for years. But if you kind of look at that versus like the show that we went and taped, The Embroiderer’s Guild. It was like way back in season one or whatever. It’s like we’re still interested in it. And we actually know more about it now.

And we’re even more interested in it. It’s just cool to see this kind of trajectory, you know, even in the theory of it. Like we’re actually expanding our knowledge about that. Yeah. I thought this kind of, you know, that was probably the first, you know, all textile show I’d seen. So yeah. I forget what it was called. But it was a few works that blew our mind back then. Yeah. You know, you kind of, we kind of positioned it as you dragging me along as like the bratty child because you’re just obsessed with this stuff.

Yeah. And it was like me, I was also acknowledging that, you know, I think we did an episode where we spoke about in this season how we like to look at art. And, you know, we had a few, you know, what would you call them? Like metrics or like, you know, things that you can improve. We had a framework. Yeah. A little framework like with skills. And I think one of them was like, I don’t know, engaging with materials or mediums that you find difficult.

So don’t just being like, oh, fuck it. I don’t like embroidery or fuck it. I don’t get photography. It’s like, give it, give yourself some time to wrestle with it. True. And I thought this was a really nice, like bookmark for myself and for us to check in and say like, okay, six months later, you know, how am I feeling about fashion? How am I feeling about textiles? And so this exhibition, like in her, in the fiber of her being, for me, it was like a really nice, yeah, just a nice check, checkpoint.

Yeah. To say, okay, like I’ve fucked with this. Totally. I can now get more out of it. I’m now more comfortable with it. And yeah, like that’s, that’s a nice thing to see, you know. Let’s, let’s get into it then. Yeah. This, this essay in the, in the sort of show catalog. Yeah. So this essay is called Becoming Her by Sarah Rose, who curated this show.

And we kind of just read over this this morning together. And it’s, it’s really awesome. You know, I mean, at a really high level, it’s talking about, I’d say two things like the, like this analogy between textile craft and the body and being embodied. Right. And there’s lots of beautiful analogies she’s drawing. And then there’s also like a feminist kind of, I guess, take and critique of, you know, a devaluing of women’s labor in textiles.

Yeah. That’s like the super high overview of this essay. Totally. And she also adds like, um, as well as that, like continuum with the body and textiles, this kind of like textiles and the body and then spiritual world stuff too. Okay. So the essay starts with cotton, linen, wool, polyester, silk.

Fiber is felt in nearly every aspect of our lives. And for some is an intrinsic part of their being attributing to cerebral and divine consciousness and an awareness of self. I’m just going to jump into this one quote that like really stuck out to me. So here’s a quote from like a few paragraphs later. It comes from a, like the title of, of this part of the essay is, but what is it that we are made of?

I’m jumping ahead a little, but you know, so it goes from birth to death. Fiber operates as a silent witness to the rhythms and routines of our everyday lives, revealing and concealing our identities. It performs a vital role in mediating the constantly shifting relationships between the self, others and the world we inhabit. Oh my God. So good.

Like, stop, just stop. There’s like so much in that already, you know, um, like the, um, silent witness thing. I love, um, I just think about like wear on clothes and like, it’s so funny cause we, we know that kind of, um, uh, denim trend of like people. I wonder when they even started it, but like, it’s always been a thing, you know, in our lifetimes, people like distressing jeans.

I was thinking, yeah, too. I was telling you about like my neighbor’s undies on the line. And I live in like an apartment and with like a shared, um, Hills Hoist. Yeah. And I just see these pair of undies, like, you know, this tradies undies that look like they’ve been worn for like half a decade. Yeah, totally. Like I can see the fuck through that. I remember saying like. See the shroud of, the image of Jesus’ face on there.

Yeah, exactly. Um, how, yeah, like particularly like undies and like, you know, whatever that whole class of garment socks and shit. Yeah. You know, are really bearing this like silent witness of your body in this way. Yeah. You were saying to me that like, no, they know stuff about you. Yeah, exactly. That maybe other people don’t know. A hundred percent.

Yeah. Silent witness is to the rhythms and routines of our everyday lives. I like, I love how she’s positioning like just sort of our relationship to clothes and textiles here. Because she does go on later to talk about the kind of non-discussive as in like non, non-verbal language of textiles.

And my first reaction was like, wait a second. But, you know, she’s right. Actually, I’m pretty sure there’s, you know, weavings from, I don’t know, thousands of years ago, maybe around the time or before the time that we started actually talking to each other, you know. And at the very least, they’ve evolved like together language and, you know, textiles.

So there’s that. I like, you know, I like how she’s positioning them as this kind of enduring kind of, I wanted to say object, but it’s like this enduring structure in our lives. Like this tradition or structure or what’s another word I’m looking for? It’s this kind of relationship almost like to a living being that we as, you know, cultures have had since forever.

And then like just our sort of, our kind of social concept of it, like how it reveals and conceals our identity. And then our kind of bodily, you know, relationship with it. It like, you know, it smells us. It like, it hugs us all the time. And it’s sort of, it’s private, it’s a privacy screen too, or it’s not, you know, it’s revealing.

Man, this essay really like is turning me on more to fashion. Like, yeah, no, of course. I mean, that’s like that very like thing has been something I’ve been trying to wrestle with for so long. It was like, I felt like, I know this shit was so big and expansive and it’s everywhere. And right now it’s like tripping me out being in your room. You got like towels and all these shirts with different textures and like fucking guitar bag.

And then like, fuck, there’s so many fibers. Yeah, there’s fiber everywhere. It’s so intense. Yeah. The carpet, like, we’re fucking, especially you, because you’re fucking, it’s like your decoration. It’s true. I’m a fabric guy. Fabric cultivist. Yeah. Yeah. You were kind of saying something earlier about like, what do you, what do you feel like about, what do you think about like being a guy, you know, like coded as, as like, you know,

AMAB, cis white guy doing like, um, textile stuff. And I thought that was a really interesting question because I sort of, I think about it a lot, but I never really like investigated or like challenged myself about it, you know? But yeah, thinking about like what another quote in that essay, the kind of, um, she’s talking

about it as invisible women’s work, you know, historically and today. Like even like, I bet you half of the stuff, no, not half of the stuff. A lot of the stuff in this room was made by like, you know, totally underpaid, like unrecognized, like heavily burdened, like probably women workers in like third world countries or whatever.

Yes. And yeah, I think that’s a really cool thing to keep in mind, you know, it’s like, I’ve got the like fun Instagram version of it, you know, I like that hemming job that I’m doing for Baz, like, you know, I’m not doing that to feed my family, you know, I’m doing it to like feed my soul or something. Yes. Yes. Yeah. No, it’s, it’s really cool. I guess I wanted to read this quote cause there’s kind of like two, like, I don’t know,

big lines of like feminist inquiry running through this. Like, yes, it’s kind of funny and you might get some certain takes of like, oh, you’re doing this, like you’re doing whatever, uh, textile work, like as a dude. Um, but then they had to like give you the full quote. This is from, uh, this writer Janice Jeffries and it goes, Janice Jeffries describes women’s

work as follows. Textile work is perceived as labor intensive, slow and painstaking. And yet in a double twist rendered and devalued as invisible women’s work, non-work or non-productive. Labor. Mm. And you walk into a show like this, like in the fiber of her being, or, you know, the one at the embroider’s guild, you know, you would got like basket weaving and, and just

one of the first things you see, like in contrast to some of the, I would say more trendy styles of art making, like, you know, it’s pretty fucking trendy just to slap, like, I don’t know, what do we see? Like a fucking soccer ball with a camera on it. Text in neon. Text in neon or something, something that’s completely abstracted.

Like the, it’s, I think, you know, even all the way back when I first started, like I took my first art history course and, you know, I was kind of bombarded and indoctrinated with a lot of like West, Western art history Matisse bullshit. You know, I don’t know if we said, but like the ag is having like their biggest Matisse show

Yeah. Like whatever. I’m probably going to go see it.

Nah. I like Matisse. Yeah. But yeah, what I, what I want to say is like, I remember when I was like 18 or 19 thinking that like this shit was dumb, like thinking that like textile work and like, yeah, like baskets and stuff were dumb. I thought they were like, they didn’t have aesthetic value.

And that’s kind of, I don’t know, like it’s a pretty fucked up position. But it was also like, I think what the art world had done. It was like crafts and jewelry making is not cool. It’s not valuable. Like what’s cool is like, you know, concepts and like abstracting labor. And they’re like, oh my God, bro, you care about labor value in art worlds?

That’s so tacky. That’s so like. True. The labor is like a big sort of elephant in the room of that exhibition. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And it was even this thing of like people that couldn’t comprehend conceptual work were dumb. Like, you know, they needed to see labor value in the work to see its worth. True. Like abstract painting, right?

My kid could do this. Yeah. They’re saying like, there’s no labor value in there that I can quantify. And that is kind of a double bind with this stuff. Cause I also don’t want to say like this embroidery is good because it was so painstaking. Right. Cause that’s kind of boring. But yeah, it was interesting to throw back to me. I remember walking past a gallery somewhere and seeing the show and being like, oh, it’s

like a craft show. Like I’m good. We’re going to finish this season being like fully into hyper realistic pencil drawings. We’re going to be like, wow, look at the labor. That’s cool. I like that. The trajectory of like contemporary art being more and more abstract does feel like it sort of, it needs a correction somewhere along the line.

Right. Right. And yeah, I think there’s, this is a good example of interesting ways of like thinking about and including labor as one of the elements of, you know, the, the sort of constellation of elements that show in a show like this. Yeah. But I mean, yeah. Like all the work that we’ve really loved, like even, you know, painting and stuff, but

most of the work we’ve seen this year has had a lot of labor value. Yeah. It’s like this beautiful mix of conceptual and laborious. Maybe it’s a little bit old fashioned to like think of contemporary art as just like, yeah, a blank canvas. And oh my God. I feel like there’s been a pretty solid pushback like in the last five, 10 years to like seeing the value of, you know, you know, this labor as well as concept.

Yeah. It’s not that cool to be like, I didn’t put any work in. Like it’s just a fucking, like, you know what I mean? I spat, I spat in this cup. Yeah. I spat in this cup. I sold this banana. Yeah. Like that was actually a work. I think some guys, some guy ate like the 100k banana. How old was the banana? That’s gross. No, it was a good fresh banana. Oh, it was a fresh banana. It was like 100k.

It was taped to the wall at the fucking viandale or something. There’s actually a pretty cool artist that sold a glass of milk for like 60k. It’s pretty good. Yeah. This black dude. He was like, I just wanted to see if I could. And I was like, I’m into that. I remember. All right. Should we talk about some works in the show?

I’m actually a peace loving guy. Anyway, so now we’re going to get into some of the works and there’s like a shitload of awesome works. We can’t talk about them all, but we picked a couple. Yep. The first one we wanted to talk about was the Chanpi Desert Weavers. And then I’ll just read the blurb from the exhibition catalog.

Chanpi Desert Weavers. Chanpi meaning wild grass is an award-winning indigenous governed and directed social enterprise. Chanpi empowers over 400 women across a 350,000 square kilometer area of the tri-state region of NT, SA, and WA to earn an income and remain in their communities on country. These works are baskets in the form of like almost like Greek vases and another couple of

like forms of basket. You were actually there. So it’d be cool if you like talked a little bit about them. But yeah, the thing that kind of strikes us about them, I think, is the sort of play between these disparate sort of elements like the native grass. And then this funny ancient Greek form with kind of modern, almost like hyper modern, like

neon colors. Like this vase I’m showing you now. It’s like got that kind of like fluoro pink at the bottom of it. Yeah. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on. Yeah. With the colors. One of the things that I loved being there in person was like the bias, like the lean that just felt like really exciting and interesting to me, this real like mark of handmade-ness.

And yeah, it was interesting because in the show, so we’re looking right now at like one of these colorful woven vases. And then if you go up one picture, next to it was just this, you know, one without any color. Like what color is that? That’s just like plain grass color. Like an undyed fiber. Yeah. And that was really beautiful as well. Um, a couple of them have, uh, like these kind of emu feather rims, which were really

cool. Like I remember standing in front of them and feeling like something very immediate about the way that like those, like, you know, feathers are like these unprocessed, you know, it makes you like, how often are you like standing something like, you know, like these, especially emu feathers. Do you know what I mean?

Like we were talking before about like the wool making process and we’re talking about, you know, industrial, um, processing of textiles, but like standing in front of something that really does feel like elemental, like a feather. Um, that was, I know it felt really exciting to me. Yeah. And, uh, there’s one on the wall here.

Yeah. I’m not sure if we got like a clear picture of it, but it’s kind of like, it’s a, I know what you call it. It’s quite like a hollow basket. It’s a shallow basket. Exactly. Sorry. Yeah. A shallow basket. Yeah. And it’s being propped up on the wall, almost like, you know, it’s for like display. Like you would, you know, if you were using it or something to carry something, you’d

hold it like flat, but it’s like been propped up almost ornamentally. And like, I don’t know, like maybe it could be, it could also function that way. And obviously when we start talking about like, you know, like, uh, I don’t know, artifying objects that have practical concerns. Domestic. Exactly. Objects.

Yeah. That’s the thing. I’m interested. While you were saying that I’m looking at these, the construction of these things and they look strong, you know, like this, these, these, um, sort of Greek looking urns, you could probably fill them with rocks and carry the rocks around. Not that that’s what people do usually, I guess with them, but that, like, that’s so cool about it. That sort of domestic, like that, that, um, question of durability, you know, like you

want your fucking work jeans to be sat on a thousand times, 20,000 times or whatever. Yeah. And yeah, I love that sort of, um, combination of this like beautiful, fine form with like serious, rugged durability. Um, yeah, I think that’s a beautiful intersection of, of ideas.

That was something that we didn’t really talk about in our sort of intro segment to this show is like the domesticity of, of all this stuff, like textiles having a place in the home sort of primarily first, you know? Yeah. I think this would be a really cool, um, point just to bring in. I want to bring in like a local writer and critic, Neha Kale.

We were reading their essay on, uh, the Saturday paper. Um, it was called like in the fiber of, of her being, which is the exhibition show has a really beautiful, like short kind of, I don’t know what you would call it. Just, you know, a piece about the, the history, like, you know, the feminist history and the feminine history of, of this work, but also just, uh, I don’t know, like a, a very considered

take on, you know, the aesthetics and the art. But yeah, in that essay, Neha says, uh, speaking about these works here, female artistry isn’t a solo endeavor, but an act of collaboration carried out with country itself. And yeah, that kind of stuff, it felt, yeah, it felt there was something kind of special. Like I was drawn to those works and it does feel like, I don’t know, as an Australian dude,

there’s some, something special in like when I’m engaging with like indigenous art or indigenous poetry, like it feels like a moment for me to learn in a way that I don’t think I could in any other way. Totally. Right. And that feels really like, I don’t know if exciting is the right word, but I don’t know. It feels very like special.

And it is special, but yeah, but it’s not, it’s not even in like a school fucking excursion way. Like I ought to like this shit. It’s also like genuinely doing like art and world shit in a powerful way. For sure. And I was just thinking like when we intro’d this, we were like, oh, you know, this is quite practical. Like in the brochure, they’re saying this collective allows for these women to like have a living

and remain in country. And maybe to the point I was making before where like, you know, at a certain like, you know, super other end of it, like super privileged, like conceptual art, all practical concerns are considered like unworthy. Yeah. You’re like, that’s lame. Like you care about like making a living, but you know, as like we get older as well, you

realize that this burden of like art and living, it never goes away. Totally. And that feels like it ties into the stuff you’re saying about these objects coming from the domestic, have a function, but also being presented in an art gallery, a contemporary artified art gallery. Definitely some super interesting play with like art economy.

Yeah. What a beautiful continuum to have all in one work. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. It’s fucking sick. Wow. Yeah. We really liked the Neha Kale article. We’ll link to it. I think it’s paywalled, but it’s worth checking it out. I think it was really cool. Take for the subscription. Yeah. Okay. So, um, it goes on, um, fiber is tactile and intimate linked to our first and most formative

impressions. There are no wall texts in the exhibition, which we like a lot. While there’s a feminist logic in stamping textiles made by women with the imprimatur of the art world, as in the kind of official sanction of the art world. This show is led by another impulse. It invites the viewer to see the works as gifts or offerings, acts of creation that are less

interested in masculine hierarchies and more in the fabric of the everyday. It’s a really like fucking exciting idea, right? Yeah. Like, I think you spend part of your career when you get into this like art world, I call it a career, but like you get into the art world. And like, I think the naive impulse is to like, see how you can fit yourself in and how you

can win in the current paradigm. You’re like, how can I say the right things and wear the right things? Yeah. You know, how can I like buy expensive art? What’s my niche? It’s so expensive. What’s my fucking niche? But like, and it’s so hard to like believe in this stuff, like that this stuff could exist. And like, I think we’ve even gotten scared. Like it’s become, it’s like lame to speak like this because it’s like hippie and like uncool

and not rooted in reality. Right. Right. Um, but I think like reading that, like, you know, that’s like, this is what the white pubes screaming about. Like if we really let ourselves believe in a possibility of this, like it’s exciting. Yes, it is exciting. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s so cool to just see this kind of thing going on. It’s not like, like, yeah, stuck in a kind of almost like a competitive, like arms race,

you know, it’s just like, it is what it is. And, and yeah, like the, the offering gifts, you know, like that’s so fucking cool. Yeah. It’s interesting too, because it’s kind of like these institutions, I wonder if they feel uniquely Australian in the same way, like these like kind of out West, like small institutions, like the, um, gallery host told me there’d been like six people as a Saturday and they

were like, that was a busy day. Right. So it’s interesting because we’re not in a fucking super commercial gallery, you know, museums, especially like small, like what do you call these? Like almost like a regional museum vibes. Yeah. Like, dude, they gave me a fucking cup of tea at the front. Yeah. Like a suburban, they’re like, help yourself to tea out of like a shitty, like motel,

like square porcelain cup. Like we were walking around the exhibition. It was beautiful. No, it was fucking beautiful. And it was actually good tea. It was like Melbourne breakfast from tea too. It was really delicious. It had like these nice vanilla notes. That’s like government money. That’s like government bucks. But yeah, I don’t know. It was a very special exhibition. I really liked it. And it’s nice to read this essay and realize that you really can’t like, you know, all this

context and history, like it’s real. You can’t ignore it. It’s nice to go into the white cube and like, but this is not that like this also across from this exhibition had like, yeah, a bunch of like really like a printing press and like a fucking anvil from the 19th century and like a Victorian school room. The museum part. The museum part of it, you know.

So there wasn’t like this, you know, this is a fucking make believe rich person art thing. Anyway. The cool show for the pod. Yeah. Okay. So that’s, that’s that. This is three artists that they have here. Gillan Dodd, Puna Yanima and Mrs. M. Bennett. Yeah.

Really cool work. I wish I hadn’t missed it. And do you know what? If, if you haven’t seen it, it’s too late. By the time this comes out, the show’s finished. So yeah, I got there on the last day. Yeah. Anyway. Anyway. Tell me more of this work around. I’m sure. For sure. This is a, this is a sort of strand, a thread that continues to sort of weave its way across

Sydney’s art scene. And we like to see it. We want to see more. Yeah. Don’t stop. No. We should go back to the Embroiderers Guild and, um. They actually have another show that I wanted to see. Great. Fucking. We’re, it’s on, dude. We’re becoming their number one supporters. This is the number one fabric podcast in Sydney. Our artist of the week.

This week is Linda Sock, uh, with their work, Mending Fragments of a Memory. Do you want to run me through what this looks like? And then we’ll get into some of the story behind it. Um, yeah, so it’s got like patchwork quilt vibes, right? Like, and I believe it’s like, um, the artist grandmother’s, um, kind of like leftover fabrics.

Um, and the way it is, it’s pretty cool. It’s like three big kind of, what do you call those? Yeah. I guess like panels, um, that are being suspended. So like, yeah, hung from the roof. They take up quite a lot of space. Like it’s a good, I don’t know, three or four meters across. And yeah, it has that patchwork aesthetic. And then like the, um, panels are like tethered together by these like strings of kind of,

I don’t know, gold, like fine gold chain. Yeah, exactly. And then across the gold chain, there’s these little notches and they’re these like beautiful little charms. Yeah. Yeah. Like that. Yeah. Beautiful little, like good luck charms or like, like I can see that’s the like chili or horn, like warding off the good eye charm and like little leaves or like spoons and

like, yeah, just like beautiful little like trinkets. And, and, um, what are you pointing at here? Well, the fabrics are coming from all these different places and most of them are like traditional, like, I know they’re like patterns and things you would expect to see in a quilt. Yeah. And then there’s one that’s black and it has text and it says like PJ Platinum.

Like it looks like. Funny brand. Yeah. I feel like I would see that in an airport or something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that was a funny, and it wasn’t all over there like that. It was just, I think one patch that I remember that kind of, you know, contravened the rest of the aesthetic. Yeah. But it was exciting, man. It was really, I’d never seen something quite like this before. Yeah. It was very impactful.

It was very impactful when I was there and I did those golden charms or something so artful because they’re small and they’re like from this crafty world. Like I spent the morning in this fucking ridiculous antique shop. And you know, you can sometimes just dig through like boxes of like knickknacks and like tchotchkes and it was kind of like these golden ones of those. Yeah.

That had been, and there was a lot of them in the work. Yeah. I don’t know. What about, what about you? I mean, you’ve only seen the pictures. Sure. Yeah. I’m just, I’m admiring the attention to detail and the stitching.

Hard to say if it’s like done by hand or with a machine, but yeah, it’s just got this beautiful like form to these sort of parallel double stitches to like join all the panels together. And I love how there’s a gap in one of these kind of quilts, a couple of them actually. It’s just, it’s really considerately put together.

And then the sort of, that sort of, yeah, the play between the charms and how it’s hanging and then the fabrics, the sort of mix of fabrics and patterns. It’s just, it’s beautiful. And then when we go and read the, the, fuck, what is this fucking called?

Description. Or like the artist statement. Yeah. When we read the artist statement, there’s this like story that a couple of other journalists reporting on this picked out too, which I’ll read now. The work looks towards piercing, the work looks towards piecing together stories from my childhood, most significantly reflecting on a story about my grandmother.

The story tells of her fleeing the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime with her gold jewelry sewn into the inside of her clothing, which in turn funded the means to pay for her and her children’s safety. I mean, fuck, like that’s, that’s beautiful. Like a lot of other people picked up on that story just because of that amazing, like, and

this links back to the stuff we were reading right at the top from Sarah Rose’s like essay at the beginning, the kind of connection between history and, and your, your everyday, like that sort of intimate thing that, you know, the clothes have this knowledge of you. These are like these family secrets, you know, on display now in the gallery and yeah, it’s

just, it’s so touching and, and human. It’s just really like such a solid idea and execution. We love it. Yeah. No, no, this was a total win and it was really fun to talk about and see what other people were thinking and hiding. Yeah. Super fulfilling exhibition. All right. Well, that wraps up our gallery segment.

You have anything else you want to say? That’s it, man.

Thanks for listening. Another episode in the books. I think next episode is going to be our last before we take the Christmas break. Yep. True. Yeah. So get hyped for our last episode of the year. Speak to you in a couple of weeks.

Yep. Couple. Yeah. A couple of weeks. Okay. Bye. See ya. That was the weirdest. Let’s do it again. Okay.

Bye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Show notes

We can’t get enough of this fashion talk. After a state-mandated fit check we dive back in to who’s wearing what, and why. In the fibre of her being just closed up at @fairfieldcitymuseumgallery so with reference to two essays by curator of the show @sarahrosecurator and journo @nehakale , we discuss the labour-abstraction spectrum and the invisible work of weavers thru time ⏱🪡 This discussion revolved around works by Linda Sok and the @tjanpidesertweavers : Ngilan Dodd, Puna Yanima, and Mrs M. Bennett And drum roll please….. Our artist of the week this week is @lendasok ! whose extraordinary work Mending Fragments of a Memory totally captivated us with its clever use of materials to inform a narrative. See you next time : )