*Featured photo: A Blue Landscape #4, 2022, indigo dyed, stitched, salvaged household textiles, 280 x 280 x 250cm. Household waste such as discarded clothing and table cloths have been deconstructed, dyed, and stitched together into five draped layers. The work is a walk-in landscape, from materials diverted from landfill. Conceptually, it draws on the painting term atmospheric perspective, where particles of water in the atmosphere affect perception, for example hills in the distance appearing blue, and so receding blues in a painting simulate this phenomenon for an illusion of depth.
Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland Cnr Middle and Bloomfield Streets, Cleveland Q 4163
June 26 – August 14, 2022
Open: Bookings essential. | To secure your place, visit: artgallery.redland.qld.gov.au/programs/public-programs | Admission free
Info: Tel: (07) 3829 8899 or email: gallery@redland.qld.gov.au
Brisbane-based artist Rachael Wellisch unifies different techniques with shades of natural indigo dye. Wellisch uses discarded, threadbare clothes and worn out bedsheets that undergo alchemical altercations to refabricate into sculptures, hand-made paper and installations. While the works may suggest abstractions of nature, such as rock sediment or vistas of water, the materials offer a view on the relationship between textile production, consumption and waste.
Rachael Wellisch is an Australian artist using natural indigo dye, textiles, and installation in response to environmental concerns. Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours in 2016 from Griffith University (Brisbane, QLD), she received awards for academic excellence every year of her studies including ‘Fine Art Student of the Year’ in 2011. Currently a post-confirmation doctoral candidate at Griffith University, she is also a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society. Winner of the St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital Art Prize (QLD) in 2016, and Recycle Rework Remake (NT), in 2021, she has been selected and commended in multiple national and international art awards. She has undertaken artist residencies in Shankill Castle, Ireland, and House Conspiracy in Brisbane, during 2017, as well as Art Quarter Budapest in Hungary, during 2018. Rachael was awarded an Arts Queensland Grant in 2018, a National Assistance Program for the Arts Grant in 2020, and has exhibited in Australia, across Europe and in Japan. Her work is held in the St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital collection, the Westin Hotel in Perth, Crown Towers in Sydney and is also held in private collections within Australia, UK, France and Ireland.
