'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006

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

'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006
'Pause', Botanica group exhibition, Craft Queensland Gallery, 2006

Photography by Mandy Ridley.