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The West Australian Fibre & Textile Association is an arts collective for creatives who have a passion for innovation, craftsmanship, knowledge and networking.

ReGEN Exhibition Details

ReGEN :: to form anewtmp-n7.upload

A WAFTA exhibition, showcasing innovative new works by members of the Western Australian Fibre & Textile Association.

August 17 - September 1, 2024

Moores Building Art Space (MBAS), Henry Street, Fremantle 

 

To sign up for volunteering throughout the ReGEN exhibition, please click HERE

 

VOLUNTEER INFORMATION - INITIAL SIGN UP

 ReGEN, the 2024 WAFTA Members’ Exhibition is getting closer and we need WAFTA members to lend a hand. The Exhibition dates are Saturday August 17 to Sunday September 1, and Moores Building Art Space (MBAS) is open every day, 10am to 3pm. The gallery will be staffed by WAFTA.  As stated in the entry guidelines, it is the expectation that all exhibitors will partake in a gallery sitting roster, unless significant distance or extenuating circumstances prevail. However, you do not need to have submitted an entry to volunteer! We warmly welcome all WAFTA members to volunteer for a few hours. 
There are TWO time periods per day, and we require THREE volunteers for each period.
The periods are: 9.45am - 12.30pm, and 12.15 - 3.15pm
 
A roster booking form is now available. Here’s how it works: 
  • It’s a matter of first in, best dressed - if you have a preference for particular days(s), we encourage you to register early. 
  • Once you have registered your shift(s) and submitted the form, a confirmation email will be sent to you with the date(s) and times. . 
  • We whole-heartedly encourage you to do more than one shift, and/or or volunteer for two consecutive periods (i.e. a whole day) - in which case, please fill out both periods on the roster. 
  • We're using SignUp to organise our roster - this can be easily accessed by:
 
1) Click this link to see our roster on SignUp
2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.
3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on SignUp.
 
Note: SignUp does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please info@wafta.com.au and we can sign you up manually.
 
What are the perks of the job:
  • Meet new friends or catch up with old friends (if you coordinate your roster) as you do a shift together.
  • Spend time looking, really looking, at each of the works on display and be inspired by your fellow members.
  • Hear feedback directly (or indirectly!) from visitors - a great way to gauge how the works are received.
  • A coffee voucher for Moore & Moore Café is included for every volunteer, each shift.
 
What does a shift involve:
  • Arriving on time to assist with opening the gallery space and handover between shifts.
  • Do a walk around to check artworks. 
  • Check welcome desk is well stocked with information leaflets about WAFTA, the demonstrations and art talks information sheet, and gallery floor(sales) sheets.
  • If needed: light cleaning such as dusting off plinths tops.
  • Welcoming and interacting with visitors as required.
  • Recording the number of visitors in attendance.
  • Assistance in selling works available for sale (detailed instructions will be provided).
 
Thank you, thank you! 
We look forward to a wonderful Members’ Exhibition and your involvement to help us make it a great success.  

 

 

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

We warmly invite WAFTA members to be part of ReGEN and create new work for this exciting exhibition. We encourage artistic excellence, technical ability, explorative play, narrative or conceptual interpretation of the theme, and the ability of the work to convey this. Originality and quality of presentation are equally important. The aim is to create an inclusive space for contemporary textile and fibre artworks to be uniquely displayed in an engaging setting, encouraging WAFTA members and visitors to be immersed in the diversity and scale of works.

Key Dates:

Entries open                    1 March 2024 (online via WAFTA website)
Entries Close                   1 July 2024
Delivery of Work(s)         10 -12 August 2024 (at metropolitan and regional drop-off locations – details TBC)
Exhibition Dates             17 August to 1 September 2024
Official Opening             17 August 1-3pm


CURATORIAL THEME


Regenerate

to effect a reform, to re-create, revive, reconstitute, restore, make over, form anew
or, as Albert Einstein once stated: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed: it can only be changed from one form to another”.

Since WAFTA was founded in 1995, the not-for-profit organisation has hosted outstanding and engaging exhibitions to promote the work of WAFTA Members, and the profile of fibre and textile art more broadly. Our 2024 Members’ Exhibition ReGEN, is poised to be no exception. The aim is to expand the Association’s rich heritage, through a focus on renewal, connection, and community.

In the broadest sense, ReGEN provides a platform for an exchange of ideas and personal reflections about what regeneration signifies to the Membership at large. It may relate to a sense of renewal, growth, nurture, environment, change and (re)configuration, a re-creation (of the senses, memory, heritage, materials), tactile aesthetics, the natural world, relationships, or spirit, to name a few.

We are delighted that the exhibition will take place during IOTA 2024, The Indian Ocean Craft Triennial. Serendipitously, our exhibition theme directly leans into the theme of IOTA24 - ‘Codes in Parallel’, referencing the multivarious and co-existing languages, in a material and narrative sense. As textile makers and fibre artists, many of us understand creative practice as a mark-making process, and textile-making as a narrative act through which we process and communicate personal experience, beliefs, and socio-cultural concerns.


The focus of our exhibition is also on materiality, whereby the process and techniques of making can be positioned as a centrally relevant and narrative expression in, and of, itself, engaging the tactile, and transformative potential of working with cloth, fibres, and threads. The intentional choice of utilising certain materials and methods speaks of choices close to the makers’ hearts and their creative processes. Individually and collectively, the exhibition is set to communicate personal reflections relating to the concept of regeneration, in its multi-layered forms. 

The theme for our 2024 Members’ Exhibition is broad, and intentionally so: being both non-restrictive and explorative. The WAFTA membership is diverse; with all of us situated in a particular cultural and geographical landscape. The aim for ReGEN is to re-present this diversity, and to showcase the artists’ interpretations in ways that also expand understandings about the potential (and indeed the regeneration) of textiles and fibre art.

 

Artist Talks/Workshops

Artist talks and ‘walk-in’ mini-workshops and demonstrations will form part of the exhibition. Both these activities are strongly encouraged by WAFTA, in part to facilitate opportunities for professional skills development for exhibiting artists. It will also present a unique opportunity for the public to learn about a range of fibre art skills and techniques and gain a deeper understanding and insights about the works on show.


The Exhibition Coordinator is WAFTA member Martien van Zuilen, in collaboration with WAFTA’s ReGEN Exhibition Committee which include Caitlin Stewart and Pip Hoy.
They can be reached at exhibitions@wafta.com.au and will respond as soon as they can.


ReGEN :: to form anew …. the overarching theme; some thoughts & possibilities
  • Take a moment – what does ReGeneration mean to you? What does it signify, or speak of?
  • Regenerate: dictionaries inform us that it means to effect a reform, to re-create, revive, reconstitute, restore, make over, form anew. The words ‘text’ and ‘textile’ are related, sharing the same Latin linguistic root ‘textus’ meaning woven, or to weave. With that in mind, some synonyms of the word Regenerate include: invigorate, reconstruct, recreate, reestablish, reinvigorate, rejuvenate, reproduce, change, exhilarate, inspirit, produce, reanimate, reawaken, refresh, renew, renovate, restore, revive. revivify, uplift.
  • regenerate [verb] –  to grow again or to make something grow again, for example, new tissue, a plant, a new part, a new approach
  • Regeneration and renewal in a personal or collective sense – a resolve, a change of heart, in the individual, in a relationship, a group, a collective
  • Regeneration in nature; seeds that sprout, new growth. A new season, and the regenerative potential that lies within. For example, after a period of ‘hibernation’ following winter, one’s focus might shift to new growth, possibility, the seed of an idea, emergence
  • The environment, and climate change – the challenges…and ways forward
  • A regeneration or reconstruction of materials
  • To engage with the contemporary field and conceptual outlook of fibre art-making anew; to (re)generate a new (or old) creative idea