Title: How did I get here?
Exhibition: Naarm Textile Collective - Uncommon Threads
Venue: 45 Downstairs Gallery, Flinders Street Melbourne
Date: October 17th - 28th 2023
Website: NAARM REXTILE COLLECTIVE
Background - Everyone needs a safe and secure home, where we can live close to family and friends, especially as we grow older. It is an indictment on our social + economic policies of the past, that a growing number of older women are now facing an insecure future of housing instability. Every night, more than 122,000 people in Australia experience homelessness, and although the most visible experience involves sleeping rough on the streets, this type of homelessness represents a mere 6% of the ‘unhoused’ population.
Sadly, women make up the vast majority of the newly homeless and older women the fastest growing group. The 2016 Census reported that the number of women over 55 experiencing homelessness increased by 31% compared to 2011 and the research shows that most of these women have never been homeless before. This person could be your sister, aunt, mother or grandmother, and this alarming statistic, is almost double the growth rate for people experiencing homelessness in Australia.
This artwork, in progress, titled, How did I get here?, is a life size sculptural piece, worked in textiles, threads and fibres.
The narrative delves deep into the psyche of a 61 year old Australian woman, a dear friend, who has had first hand experience in finding herself ‘unhoused’ over the past 6 years. This work attempts to interpret in textiles, fibres, and threads, the fragility of her circumstances, the human condition in its many facets, and the juxtaposition of her vulnerability and reserves of resilience and strength she has needed to keep afloat physically and mentally to maintain a semblance of ‘normality’ and stability.
This work challenges the viewer to contemplate the circumstances that older women face in becoming ‘unhoused’ and ‘unanchored’; to unravel the layers of complexity this circumstance gives rise to.
As an artist I offer you a moment within this space, to sit with this exhibit, in its narrative of uncertainty and hope and simply feel.