Botanica

Featuring the work Pause.
Group Exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, Fortitude Valley, Queensland, 2006.

Hand-cut polypropylene motif on polypropylene support.
Work comprises three panels. Each panel measures 1235 x 665 cm.

The work Pause, was commissioned for the 2006 Craft Queensland exhibition Botanica. In it Brisbane-based artist Mandy Ridley pushes material and process developments from her existing practice. Ridley seeks to extend on the use of newly introduced man-made materials in her work that is firmly grounded in traditional craft, particularly embroidery techniques.

In an extension of recent works that used as a starting point plant forms from her local environment, Ridley has chosen to again work with a design based on a floral motif. In this instance she has chosen to reference traditional pattern making from India, in particular a Rangoli design taken from a pattern booklet, which was found during a market visit during her 2002 travels.

The strong graphic shapes of the Rangoli patterns are hand cut from vibrantly coloured polypropylene, then hand stitched to a support panel. The choice of Polypropylene as both a support and integral pattern making material provides strength combined with a delicate translucency.

Installation view and detail

Photography by Mandy Ridley.