Contemporary Australia: Women

159 ‘psychological and physical removes from a present location or time, reanimating the space with fantasy, imagination and even the paranormal’. 5 She is renowned for her flamboyant explorations of natural processes of camouflage, display, and adaptation through combining craft processes usually associated with the domestic realm — such as crochet — with an expanding repertoire of industrial, mass-produced and popular materials and techniques. After viewing the works Weaver created for ‘Contemporary Australia: Women’, I was aware of having traced a journey — not only in relation to this work, but also to my own sense of inhabiting space. The work imbues a sensation of unfolding time, both in terms of experiencing the work and comprehending its making. The works comprising Weaver’s new series enable relationships and correspondences that take us beyond the limitations of the now, opening up a space for the new — again I am reminded of being still in a remote landscape, my senses heightened, and of past experiences, sounds, smells and feelings combining with experiences and sensations that are completely unique and new. Ruth McDougall environment’ (a room of one’s own). The way women inhabit and occupy their environments and the desire/compulsion to make/remake/deconstruct/ repurpose/reuse/reconsider objects/detritus from the everyday, transformed into something ‘new’. 3 Weaver’s reference to inhabiting time and space through creatively transforming everyday objects and materials is reminiscent of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), and — particularly — of characters such as Mrs Ramsay, for whom the act of knitting provided a private space of creativity within the realm of domestic responsibility. 4 The Greek mythical heroine Penelope also comes to mind with her weaving, unravelling and reweaving of cloth to keep unwanted suitors at bay. Hiding in plain sight (witch grass nest) , however, reminds us that the sculptural articulation of space and the creative processes of transformation can also be found outside of the feminine, domestic realm. Inspired by the nests woven by male weaver birds and elaborate ceremonial costumes created from natural fibres by male African and Pacific artists, this organic sculpture demonstrates the ways in which materials can be chosen specifically to attract and to camouflage — enabling metaphoric spaces of habitation. Weaver is particularly fascinated by the ways particular combinations of materials, patterns and sensory experiences enable Bird Hide (detail) 2011 Japanese paper, plastic, wooden beads, glitter, monofilament, linen thread, wire, sound, synthetic polymer emulsion 450 x 540cm Opposite Dark Cherry (detail) 2011–12 Japanese 20th century lacquered cherry wood tree trunk stand, fibreglass, steel and synthetic polymer paint. 82 x 75 x 50cm Louise Weaver