“Stitched and Bound”, various artists ·
Midland Junction Arts Centre ·

“Stitched and Bound” is not your nana’s average Sunday quilting session.

Hosted by Midland Junction Arts Centre (MJAC) this biennial, juried exhibition of works by the WA Quilter’s Association (WAQA), pushes the medium to new and exciting places, in terms of both the materials utilised and ideas explored.

With a rotating roster of twelve Artists in Residence from August through until November and accompanying solo exhibitions, “Stitched and Bound” is also a welcoming hub for the like-minded and curious to learn new quilting techniques, and observe masters of the craft.

This year’s “Stitched and Bound” is the thirteenth iteration of the exhibition, the first of which was held in 1995. This year’s exhibition displays forty-five works by thirty-eight artists, selected by jurors Leanne Bray, Janet Holmes à Court and Lisa Walton. With such an expansive pool of talent, this landmark quilting exhibition continues to be an important centre for creativity and innovation.

“Stitched and Bound” begins in MJAC’s main gallery spaces, and the viewer is spoiled for choice on either side. Phillipa Thomas’s Unconditional is a touching and yet haunting tribute to her parents and the passage of time. The quilt, entirely in black and white, is a simplified and abstracted version of a photograph of Thomas as a child, seated next to her parents. At a distance the viewer’s eyes make sense of the shapes as a warm family portrait, but on closer examination, the dark pits of the eyes also hint at a memento mori.

In Cropping 1936 Susan Mader manipulates hessian to mimic the furrows made by horse, cart and plough from a historic period of Australian farming. Due to its loose weave and tendency to fray, hessian is notoriously difficult to sew, however Mader negotiates the material with impressive confidence, the fine troughs and delicate knots in the earthy fabric conjuring images of agricultural topology.

Shipping Lines: fate of freight, by Caitlin Stewart, turns the format of quilting on its head; each square is suspended from the one above it to represent of shipping containers in a yard. In the blues, yellows and greens typical of the industrial object, Stewart uses dark thread to create the corrugated appearance on each of the boxes in a playful and innovative design.

The most arresting artwork in the collection is Meagan Howe’s I’m Ok; a twisted take on the “R U Okay?” movement. In the centre of the square piece, written in a silver like the underside of medication packaging, are the words “I’m Ok”. Set into the “O” of the phrase is the plastic mouth of a cask wine pouch, and sewn into the body of the quilt, suspended behind gauze, are empty pill packets. Using the object of the quilt as something in which people generally find comfort, Howe asks the viewer to look below the surface of a person as she takes us into the mind of someone struggling to cope emotionally.

The resident artist present when I visited the exhibition was Jan Rowe, and it was an absolute delight to see her solo exhibition and watch her work. Rowe has travelled extensively and many of her artworks are records of her journeys. The story rolls of her recent trip to Brisbane, for instance, operate like continuous story boards, featuring delicate and detailed sketches in thread of different attractions that she found in the city. Her work is a testament to the versatility of quilters as artists, and an apt summary of the exhibition at large.

Rowe’s work, alongside her colleagues’, is proof that in the right hands the quilting medium can be a window into different lives and experiences, and is only limited by the creator’s imagination.

Pictured top is ‘Fragility’ by Jan Rowe. Photo: Supplied

“Stitched and Bound” continues at Midland Junction Arts Centre until 5 November 2022.

The exhibition will then tour to regional venues, including:

Lake Grace (November 2022)
Margaret River (December 2022 – January 2023)
Katanning (February 2023)
Geraldton (May 2023)
Carnarvon (July 2023)