Threads Exhibition- 2026
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns, Qld, Australia

This body of work began during an artist residency at The Boathouse in Ahmedabad, India (Feb ‘26) at—a city known for its rich textile traditions of woven threads, natural plant dyes, and block printing.

While there, I became fascinated by stepwells—ancient subterranean structures designed to hold water. They are places of decent. As you move down through them, the tempreature drops, the noise of the city fades and a quiet, almost contemplative atmosphere emerges. That experience stayed with me, and I went on to visit and research several more across the region, which became central to this body of work.

Through textile, pattern, and material, the works in Threads explore those ideas—thinking about how the harmonic architecture, and space can be felt and heard as much as seen. The soundscape you hear in the gallery, Seven Steps, was created in collaboration with Neil from Orange Peel Music, and follows that same sense of descent—moving down through seven octaves before rising again and incorporates field recordings I made in India.

While I was in Ahmedabad, I also visited Villa Sarabhai, where I unexpectedly saw a work by Robert Rauschenberg in the living room. Learning that he had spent time there on an artist residency in the 1970s, working with fabric, created a quiet sense of connection across time and place, and was a really inspiring moment for me.

Hand stitching connects to a personal lineage of making. My Dutch Oma and mother both practised embroidery, sewing, and quilting, and as a child I observed their slow, attentive handwork. This resonates with the textile traditions of Gujarat, known for intricate embroidery and detailed craftsmanship. Techniques such as Ajrakh—a natural plant-dye printing process—and Mata ni Pachedi (meaning “behind the Mother Goddess”), a 700-year-old sacred textile practice maintained by the Vaghri community, inform this work. Used as portable shrines by those excluded from temple spaces, these textiles embody both devotion and accessibility. Learning directly from these artisans, I wove these histories, techniques, and forms into this work—threads that bind across time, place, and practice.