Domestic Arts

Past Exhibition
21 July - 26 August 2017
An old green, yellow and brown striped towel has been fashioned into the shape of a banner, featuring black trim at it's angular bottom and a detailed embroidered and quilted likeness of a person cradling a small kangaroo.
An old green, yellow and brown striped towel has been fashioned into the shape of a banner, featuring black trim at it's angular bottom and a detailed embroidered and quilted likeness of a person cradling a small kangaroo.

Unravel the complex histories and traditions of home-making in Sera Waters' Domestic Arts.

When

21 July to 26 August 2017

Access

Commissioned by ACE Open, the celebrated South Australian artist continues her investigation into the contemporary significance of traditional home-crafts.

In this new body of work, Waters reaches into her own family history to interrogate the ongoing legacies of colonial home-making. Through a re-imagined familial home, Waters’ intricate embroideries and large-scale sculptures celebrate the knowledge and creativity of 'women’s work’; while also revealing their complicity with forms of colonisation and privilege.

Feature Image: Sera Waters, Telling Tales on Terry Towelling: Fashioning locals (2016-17), towel, wool, cotton, bedsheet, velvet, trim, 90 x 50 cm. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery. Photograph: Grant Hancock.

  • A wooden wreath, with flowers on it hangs on a green patterned wallpaper wall
  • A room with bright green walls displaying three tapestry style artworks.
  • Fairy lights hang from one wall to another, draped over a wall sculpture made of smooth pebbles.
  • A wide shot of the ACE gallery main room, in the foreground sits a series of beaded lamps, in the background white walls and green walls display artworks.
  • A tapestry made up of a striped orange tea towel, with fox skins lining its edges, hangs on a bright green wall.
  • High wooden bowls with beaded hangings, sit at varied heights in the middle of the white walled gallery.
A wooden wreath, with flowers on it hangs on a green patterned wallpaper wall
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Sera Waters, Boundary Wreath (2017), installation view, found woollen needleworks, wool, velveteen, beanfill, hooks, 210 x 130cm. Photo Grant Hancock, courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery

Lead Artists

Sera Waters
Artist

ACErlu tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka inparrinthi. Kaurna miyurna yaitya yarta-mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlurlu tampinthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi. Ngadlurlu tampinthi purkana pukinangku, yalaka.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna people are the traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We acknowledge Elders past and present.

ACErlu tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka inparrinthi. Kaurna miyurna yaitya yarta-mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlurlu tampinthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi. Ngadlurlu tampinthi purkana pukinangku, yalaka.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna people are the traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We acknowledge Elders past and present.