• Site Map
• Campus Map
• A-Z Index
• Staff Intranet
• Contacts

Home > Faculty of Creative Arts > School of Art and Design > FCA Gallery > is anyone drawing the pig? Sew...

is anyone drawing the pig?

5 – 26 June 2009

A collaborative exhibition from the Sewers Guildt and the Sewing Circle

In the Sewing Circle we draw still life or make art around the kitchen table in the varied settings of our houses. At each gathering the host provides us with soup and wine, and objects to draw. Some of the favourite objects from these meetings are included in this exhibition as a reminder of the part they have played and the homes they have come from.

We came up with the name the “Sewing Circle” for its connotations of a friendly and supportive group. While our reference is somewhat tongue in cheek (we’re not sewing for charity, we’re pursuing our own creative urges; we drink wine, not tea; dark chocolate, not scones), the conversations and camaraderie that arise perhaps echo the yesteryear version. While we believe in the value of drawing, our philosophy is open and recently, curiously, needles have appeared at the table to stitch on paper or cardboard or make lace.

Many of us have found that drawing is a good way to begin something new or to start creating art again. It can provide a transition between creative periods or a gently reintroduction to working at art when more complex forms seem too challenging. For some of us finding time to draw alone is not as compelling as finding time to draw together; for many, finding time to draw seems almost impossible, but for the Sewing Circle evenings you somehow put obstacles aside.

When drawing from still life, observation is liberated from preoccupations with meaning or sentiment so there is a chance to discover something unexpected about what we are looking at and, perhaps also, about drawing itself. Drawing still life can also refresh our ability to study ordinary objects and discourage artfulness. This type of drawing does not use the imagination. Instead, it is evidence left from observing, of having studied a thing and, as John Berger describes it, “interrogating the strangeness, the enigma of what is before our eyes.” *

The Sewing Circle was found out by the Sewers Guildt, a collective of artists who do indeed sew, and we’re very happy to accept their invitation to exhibit together.

Lisa Byleveld and Alison Haynes

* John Berger describes three ways drawing can function in his short essay Drawing on Paper. These are: drawings that study and question the visible; drawings which communicate ideas; and those that record a memory.

The exhibition will be officially opened at a reception on 4 June at 6pm. Light refreshments will be served - all are welcome to attend

Admission is free to all galleries at the Faculty of Creative Arts.
Gallery Opening Hours are 9am–5pm, Monday to Friday

**

Location:
FCA Gallery
Faculty of Creative Arts
Room 113, Building 25
University of Wollongong

**

Parking: Pay and Display parking is available in the Western Carpark for visitors to the University. View Maps

**

For further information or sales inquiries contact the
School of Art and Design, Faculty of Creative Arts
Phone: 02 4221 5853 or 02 4221 3996
Email: aandd_info@uow.edu.au