“Our materials come to us already ground and chipped and crushed and powdered and mixed and sliced, so that only the finale in the long sequence of operations from matter to product is left to us: we merely toast the bread. No need to get our hands into the dough.” – Anni Albers, “Tactile Sensibility”, 1965
The works in Dense Matter revel in the intrinsic potency of material. Thread scraps, aluminium foil, collected detritus, garden prunings – these cast-off things are gathered up and transformed.
The exhibition presents a series of new textiles by Anna Dunnill, and one made in collaboration with Isabelle Rudolph. The latter is a suspended sculpture constructed from hundreds of beads, which themselves were individually hand-made from pulped flower petals by the artists and their friends.
Accompanying text by Josephine Mead.
Anna Dunnill is an artist and writer based in Naarm. Her studio practice explores attention, ritual and devotion through textile processes, especially weaving. She is currently interested in ‘gleaning’ as a methodology for art practice, and her work often includes materials derived from invasive plants, garden waste, and studio scraps. In 2024 she was awarded the major prize in the Kate Derum International Tapestry Award.