Susan Mathews

detail Nightshift

In 2011 while I was still living in Yarrawonga in NE Victoria, I was engaged as one of two textile artists to take part in the Wangaratta Textile Project, an Arts Victoria undertaking. The other artist was Andrea Komninos from Melbourne. We made site visits to the Bruck factory and Australian Country Spinners in Wangaratta and were given access to research that had been done re these industries and also to the textile collection of the Wangaratta Art Gallery, which is doing a great job of building on the textile history of their rural city. Our brief was that we could choose any aspect of textiles as they relate to Wangaratta that inspired us and that we were to make one piece of work, the progress of which we were to blog about on the Culture Victoria website. It was exciting seeing Andrea's work unfold and interesting to see her take on it all next to mine.( www.cv.vic.gov.au)

              I found the factory visits fascinating, the massive machinery with its constant motion and everything on such a grand scale. What also drew me in was learning about the vital role that the textile industry played in the development of Wangaratta with the associated influx of migrant workers and the consequent construction of housing and electricity infrastructure. Stories of life at the factories, which in bygone days operated 24 hours a day and which had actually housed workers and families on site, were intriguing. The factories were a place of work but also a social hub with various sporting clubs and activities and of course, the annual picnic complete with games and races. This was the soul of the industry and I found it fascinating.

              My own research revealed a number of friends who had family or other connections to the factories and also turned up a couple of very interesting connections to members of my own family, which, given the fact that I grew up in Melbourne, I found compelling. I was intrigued by a man called Stan Arms who had managed Bruck for about 20 years. While he was in charge, a house for visiting dignitaries and a few cottages designed by Robin Boyd were built, another gem I had not previously known of in Wangaratta.. Another discovery about Wangaratta was that it has a seriously good piano which is one of only two in the world and which is kept in its own climate controlled room. Apparently, Stan who was also a founding member of the Wangaratta Arts Council, was sent to Hamburg to order the piano. The other one is said to be suffering from altitude sickness in South America somewhere!.

              Australian Country Spinners started life as the Wangaratta Woollen Mills in the 1920s and to get it off the ground the public was invited to subscribe. To publicise this the daughters of the founder went flying in a bi-plane throwing out publicity leaflets over the area.

              All these things and more really resonated with me and when I had finished my piece for the Wangaratta Textile Project, I felt compelled to keep making more work around this topic. I completed a further five pieces of work and these were exhibited along with my piece for the Wamgaratta Textile Project as an exhibition titled "Fabrications" in the foyer of the Wangaratta Performing Art Centre, a space curated by the Wangaratta Art Gallery, from December 2011 until February 2012. Two of these pieces are now in the Wangaratta Art Gallery's textile collection and two more you see here.

NIGHT SHIFT

Procion dyeing; linocut printing; machine pieced; fused applique; free motion stitching using a domestic sewing machine.  Cotton fabric; procion dyes; water soluble block printing ink; polyester threads; wool.polyester batting

99 cm h x 145 cm w

2011

I was overawed by the massed wires of the jacquard looms in the Bruck factory which soared high into the air and had a grandness about them. I have tried to illustrate this in the largest section of this quilt with very close stitching which gives the sheer effect which was evident in the real thing. This theme is repeated on a smaller scale in a linocut print repeated in strips. On the far right side the herringbone pattern references the floor in part of the Bruck factory which was parquetry and therefore allowed for movement without cracking because of the heavy machinery. It was actually quite beautiful with the patina it had acquired through the years. A further linocut print echoes the constant circular motions seen in the factories, especially Australian Country Spinners. and also references the balls of wool which are the end product.there. Giant metal rollers hold warps in the Bruck factory and these inspired the applique shapes at the bottom of the piece which are linocut prints.

SHIFT 1

Procion dyeing; collagraph printing; breakdown silk screen printing; linocut printing; reverse applique; raw edge applique; free motion machine stitching using a domestic sewing machine. Cotton fabric; sheer polyester fabric; water soluble fabric printing ink; oil paint; polyester threads; wool/polyester batting.

93 cm h x 92 cm w

2011

I found the huge metal rollers that held the warps in the Bruck factory very interesting and in this piece of work I have tried to convey the continuum of the work and the relentless motion it creates through the repetition of the a design taken from the ends of the rollers. Reference to the woven fabric that is the end product is made in the yellow lines which represent the warps under tension which part to create a “shed” through which the weft passes at great speed.

The two narrow strips are linocut printed with a design which evolved from a photo I took at one of the factories of the time card holders and this references the contribution of all the many workers who make these processes happen.

detail shift 1