A Yarraville artist is bringing familiar inner-west landmarks to the wall, using tapestry with a twist.
Jessie Deane has threaded more than a million stitches to create Needlepoint West, more than 30 tapestries of familiar landmarks in Melbourne’s west including the West Gate Bridge, Yarraville Terminal and Altona Refinery, alongside stacks of colourful containers.
The three-year project has involved numerous brushes with authority, including being escorted away from the fence-line by security at the Altona Refinery.
Deane’s industry-inspired tapestry overturns traditional ideas of the form as quaint, domestic or “pretty”.
“It is thrilling to mess with these opposing elements that might conventionally be perceived in the realm of the ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ respectively, and creating something entirely original,” she said.
Needlepoint West is showing at the Roslyn Smorgon Gallery, Footscray Community Arts Centre, until December 1.
