Description
Barbara Stephenson is drawn to the iconic bottle shaped truck and markings. Using coils of gold and bright colours, she forms Klimt-inspired rings for the textured trunk. The branches leaves and cloudy evening sky are a dense stitched mat of coils and twists. Bottle trees stand like matriarchs on the Queensland hills and plains. The oldest started growing 3000 years ago. Providing shelter and food, they survive our changing climate. They stand like sentinels – keeping watch. Hopefully surviving.
Materials Hand dyed strips of up-cycled woollen blankets and clothing
Measurements (mm) H 560 W 580 L 50
Enquire about cost to post within Australia Contact exhibition@swellsculpture.com.au
About the Artist
Barbara Stephenson (Brisbane 1957) is a maker and art activist working with upcycled materials and found objects. Barbara’s playful approach began in childhood, making art with her artist father and sewing with her mother’s dressmaking scraps. Her art practice has developed from techniques adapted from dressmaking, collage, patch-working, basket weaving and rug-making. Barbara works with textiles for their texture, colour, and their stories of past use. Barbara won the 2019/2020 Textile Art Prize Queensland Regional Art Awards for her piece raising awareness of loss of diversity. Her striking standing wool textiles have been selected as finalist pieces in QRA 2024, Swell Smalls Art Prize 2024, The National Capital Art Prize 2023, Lethbridge Landscape Art Prize 2023, and the Art Textile Biennale 2020 Fibre Arts Australia.
Solo exhibitions: Safeguard: Warwick Art Gallery July/August 2023; and Ebb and Flow: Gatakers Art Space Maryborough, March 2023
Instagram @barbarakstephenson
For enquiries please email exhibition@swellsculpture.com.au
