'For most of history Anonymous was a woman' - Virginia Woolf

 
It is important not to separate meaning from how things are made, if we do that, we ignore the labour of the people who are part of the process. 
 
Black Wedding Dresses, in 19th Century, South Australia, were worn for life. These highly prized garments were consistently dismantled and transformed, according to size and fashion, thus giving a single dress many lives, following fashion with new collars, sleeves and petticoats. As a volunteer assistant at the Hahndorf Academy Museum, Arnott felt compelled to connect the threads and close the gaps between the stories of pioneer women.
 
Arnott’s processes of drawing, cutting, stenciling, stitching and pricking, to create a braille, lace like effect, in order to talk about damage, creativity, endurance and salvation.  Thus in following process, the artworks became a homage, ‘a blessing of the hand’ for the unknown craftswomen. The process of taking something perfect, apart and putting it back together with golden thread, fashions a sense of history, layering the fragments of labor; old lace, doylies, old and new drawings, paintings and prints, create a lament about the unsung labour of pioneer women.

See review of some of the work: 'The Hills Are Alive With Art 'Christine Nicholls Asian Art News January February 2015

asian_arts_news-_review_of_hills_exhibition_by_christine_nichols_.pdf
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