An exploration of the importance of cloth
by Sue Blanchfield
9 - 31 August 2007
Opened Thursday 9 August, 12.30pm
The exhibition was opened by Liz Williamson, BA RMIT, BEcCom Melb., Senior Lecturer in Textile Design with the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.
Entry to the exhibition and opening is free of charge.
From the artist…
Mind the Gap…between the folds retrieves the identity of a female convict, Rosina Smith, who arrived in Hobart in 1828 with a trunk of valuable dresses. The convict records, or black books of early colonial Van Diemen’s Land have provided the bare facts of conviction, appearance, voyage, arrival, assignment, servitude, marriage, births, freedom and escape.
The fine broderie anglaise cotton dress, from the mid 1820’s, with exquisite work by a highly skilled but unknown needlewoman, imagines the period of Rosina’s life between arrival in Hobart and absconding to Sydney.
Erased by a succeeding generation in denial of a convict heritage, and buried in an unmarked grave, Rosina is now imaged by another.
Sue Blanchfield
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