Sunday, July 20, 2008

and Other Tales

The main reason for the visit to Melbourne was to be at the opening of my sister's solo exhibition, and Other Tales, at IMP above Greville. (If you click on that link you'll see the invitation/postcard she made using a detail of one of the pieces.)

room view
The opening went really well, lots of people gathered in the pleasant, light-filled room upstairs overlooking Greville Street, Prahran.

room view 1
With Demelza's permission, here are my photos of each piece. Clicking on the pictures will take you to Flickr where you can see them in a bigger size.

tea for two
1. Tea for two

The photos don't do them justice at all. They are all done on vintage linen (and the first two pieces came from our great-aunt) and are portraits of family and friends taken from candid photos. She doesn't sketch on the linen first: she simply draws with thread; that is, she hand-stitches the images. A couple of them have fabric embellishments too - see the shirt collars in 'Susie, the pink balloon and other tales'. This collection represents many hours of detailed work. When I saw it all set up in the gallery I couldn't have been more proud and delighted.
Edie&I
2. Edie and I

Susie
3. Susie, the Pink Balloon and Other Tales

Saturday
4. Saturday

Sunday
5. Sunday

Nate
6. Nate

horse&zebra
7. Horse and zebra

Edited to add: The last day of the exhibition is this Sunday 27 July.

9 comments:

Michelle said...

They are absolutely beautiful. If Demelza was my sister, I'd be proud too.

So she stitches with a machine, or by hand straight on the fabric? Such a genius medium!

Olivia said...

Ooh, thanks for pointing that out, Michelle. It's all done by hand - I've clarified that now in the post.

Donna Lee said...

They are amazing. I thought she sketched them first but when you said she just stitches....that's truly amazing. They are such great glimpses into people.

Rose Red said...

wow - what a great idea!

JustJess said...

These are incredible! She is so talented.

Bells said...

I'd really love to see some of these up close some time. I'm intrigued!

catsmum said...

fabulous
Olivia
I'll be linking to this post tomorrow - have to spread the word around so lots of people go see her stuff

DrK said...

they really are stunning! clever fibre people runs in the family then?!

Denise said...

Wow, what utterly breathtaking work - amazing talent and vision.