Newsletter April 2019
Congratulations Anne Kelly on your most successful exhibition Articles of Ancestry, which opened last Thursday at Timeless Textiles gallery.
Local fibre artists Wilma Simmons opened Anne's exhibition with the following beautifully chosen words:
"How fortunate we are to have Anne Kelly show this amazing exhibition of textile art, Articles of Ancestry, her first solo Australian exhibition here in Newcastle. How fortunate we are also to have Timeless Textiles and Anne Kempton and her vision to bring us such highly respected, admired and renowned artists as Anne Kelly. I particularly feel very fortunate not only to be here tonight, but to live in this age of high technology … I first met Anne in person two years ago on her first visit to the gallery and to Australia, but knew her through her work online and via social media some years before - amazing to think that without the internet, we would have missed out on these extraordinary cultural and artistic influences in our lives. I am very excitedly happy to be here tonight. Anne Kelly like her art work is a world treasure - you will find it difficult to keep up with Anne and the demands of her global creative commitments - in the last fortnight alone, Anne has been working and teaching in India, UK, here in Australia and next week in New Zealand. Congratulations on Articles of Ancestry… this remarkable body of work and its textile artistry is already amazing all who see it. Yesterday, there were quite a number of visitors in the gallery, and one surprisingly asked me “How old is this artist?” and I thought perhaps a bit of an impertinent and irrelevant question, but this was followed with “She must be pretty old because it would take a lifetime to create this work, and to reach this level of deep understanding and empathy expressed in the motifs and stitching.” And I thought I probably couldn’t have put this much better. Anne’s “Articles of Ancestry” speaks and calls to us as a community and as individuals - to our sense of identity. When asked to describe Anne’s work, its complexity and depth prompted me to say it is happy, sad, poignant, beautiful, compelling and even confronting. Anne’s work is even more - it is important artistically and culturally. The further the world moves on from significant life changing events in the past, the more we forget and some are even tempted to deny just how those events affected generations before us. Anne’s stitched and layered textile art works remind us that not only is history real, but it also is deeply personal and meaningful to humanity, to generations now and in the future ".
Anne chats about her exhibition here, so settle in with a cuppa and have a listen.
If you are not able to get into the gallery by May 5th, you can view her exhibition here.
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