Red Spot Gallery - Rotorua Art Gallery supporting local artists
Annette Bates
ARTIST STATEMENT
As a Textile and fibre artist I struggle with my life policies to reduce my carbon-footprint and recycle, and I am acutely aware of the effects that textiles in furnishings and clothing have on our environment. Where do they end up? They arrive in our landfills, rubbish bins, recycle centres and second hand stores. I like to think that I am not contributing further to this waste problem – thus my works now incorporate old and recycled textiles.
In my current work, through the help of friends and family I have collected old chiffon scarves found through fossicking in boxes of accessories in the backlog of textiles and clothing, found in Op Shops and the likes. They are a textile from a bygone era often overlooked, but once commonly used by women of an earlier time to cover the curlers in their hair just before sitting under the gigantic conical shaped hairdryers!
I have adopted this medium for its sheerness and suppleness, free-motion machine stitched through layers of different colours, then….and this is the fun part – burning or tearing, manipulating and revealing the colours behind. Through this I create images I have in my mind of favourite places I like to visit in my hometown of Rotorua. A place where the earth opens up, cracked, scarred and scorched from the forces beneath, bubbling hot and cold water, which all makes it an inspirational and fascinating place to live in!
Annette has been stitching and creating for most of her life, she has frequently exhibited nationally and has art works in international collections. In 2008, Annette won the Agrodome sponsored Textile & Fibre Award in the Rotorua Artist Exhibition 2008 judged by Jonathan Mane-Wheoke, and in 2010 won the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust sponsored Textile & Fibre Award in the Rotorua Artist Exhibition 2010 judged by George Baloghy.