Life Threads

Wendy Tilley

Exhibition Dates:
Tuesday 4th August – Friday 28th August, 2026
Monday to Friday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Weekends: to be announced

Opening Event:
Thursday 13th August, 5:00pm – 7:00pm, 2026

An unexpected entangled assemblage of suspended raw clay threads, that descend from the rafters catching botanical motifs and remnants of histories, before finally returning to its previous state.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Life Threads is a suspended raw clay installation that will be made onsite. An entangled assemblage of clay covered threads that will drape, curl, and trail, to fill spaces within the gallery. Vine like forms that seem to grow out of the rafters including botanical motifs that develop out of the clay. I am interested in highlighting the fragility of life and the beauty of death and decay as well as alluding to themes of entanglement, impermanence, temporality, and botanical migratory history,

The creation of the work will be performative and experimental. The making will be onsite in the gallery and take around 2 weeks during which the public are invited to visit and observe. I also plan to document the making of the work via photos, video, and writing. Towards the end of the exhibition the suspensions will be taken down and plunged into tubs of water, returning the clay to its previous state.

I am fascinated by the material properties of clay and the possibilities that the material can communicate. As the clay dries it will shrink and crack. Movement of the suspended threads will also be unpredictable and this will potentially cause the clay to fracture further. Shards of unfired clay are expected to break off and will stay where it lands on the wooden gallery floor. The abstracted botanical vestiges will be an embodiment of my thinking and also catch hold of the complex histories surrounding place.

A sense of transience will be established, with the suspended threads and botanical motifs reflecting growth and movement while the raw unfired clay is in a state of flux and explores the influence of duration and time. This work will be an unexpected, curious, and playful exploration of decay and renewal evoking fragility and vulnerability as well as robust strength and durability. It challenges the notions of permeance/impermanence, value/valuelessness, and truth/untruth

Life Threads is a unique installation that layers impermanence and strength and is made in and reflective of place. Suspended drapes and vertical threads of unfired clay descend from the rafters catching botanical motifs and remnants of histories with debris cascading to the floor. While finally towards the end of the exhibition the threads of clay will be dismantled and immersed in water, returning the clay to its previous state to leave a new narrative of thinking.