Cecilia Heffer

Eucalyptus lace is a homage to the bush created from leaves collected during storm damage in the Sydney region shortly after the devastating fires of the summer. It is a maker’s response to collective loss through a particular way of marking time and place. Leaves were cut and stitched into a matrix of geometric patterns reminiscent of aerial views of paddocks in drought, a center of green hope remains. The stitching process released eucalyptus aromas evoking the familiar presence of the bush. Noticing left-over scattered leaf shapes a second spontaneous eucalyptus lace unexpectedly emerged, closer in its evocation of a fragile natural environment. Selected for Petite – contemporary small textile artworks by selected Australian Artists Wangaratta Art Gallery – Victoria

Stitches in the Air is a suite of lace animations created through a unique collaboration with Animation Artist Damian Gasgcoine. The research enquiry sought to capture and disseminate an ephemeral lacemaking process through the medium of animation. While the digital does not replace a material practice it has brought new thinking into a textile research space. For Heffer animation has provided a new material language with which to articulate and reimagine novel expressions of (p)lace through the technologies of a digital age. The animation program enabled the author to take a mental journey between the micro and macro structures of the lace expanding her understanding of space and time. Heffer found it a curious push and pull between two mediums that engage with time in completely opposite ways. Animation was a revelation for someone who invests hours of ‘material time’ in an intensive stitching process. The speed and agility of digital medium helped to test out unlimited combinations of lace structures and materialities.

These embroideries celebrate an ongoing relationship with Indian artisans through a UTS Global Studio program. Since 2012 I have taken students with colleague Alana Clifton to India to participate in specialised textile workshops. The workshops are significant in that they enrich student understanding of ethical and sustainable work practice and learn about India's 5000-year-old textile heritage hence new collaborations are created bridging several cultures. These embroideries were created in collaboration with Fashion Designer Sudhir Swain based in Bangalore and Master Embroiderer Ashok Ladiwal based in Vrindhavan.

The 100 Swatch Project was an exhibition with Interdisciplinary Fashion Designer Donna Sgro at the GAFFA Gallery in Sydney as part of Sydney Craft Week 2018. The space was set up as a studio where a performance of making occurred daily. The creation of new works emerged over a week in the gallery space while visitors were free to question and engage with the artists on site. This work evolved into a project titled Luxury Swatch which questioned how we now define artisanal practice and luxury. It was exhibited at The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, 2018 as part of a collaboration with RMIT Fashion & Textiles students.

DATA LACE has been designed to serve as a contemporary place marker. In this project, the shredded confidential documents of a an administration office are transformed into an intricate lacework of fragmented data. The work explores notions of absence and presence, in the lace information is obscured to hint at systems that have been concealed.  Public Dissemination: DATA LACE was exhibited in the UTS library stairwell as part of Sydney Craft Week an Australian Design Institute initiative (28th September – 3rd November 2017). 

Photo Credit: Jackson Mann, Paul Pavlou

Lace Narratives: A Monograph is a collaboration with designer and researcher Zoe Sadokierski. It aims to explore alternative ways to disseminate practice based research.  The publication includes four key essays on solo exhibitions, public and private commissions such as the Sydney Government House Lace Curtain commission. It  can be downloaded  along with a seven-minute video showing the making of the lace work through UTS Open Access ePress. http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/books.

The monograph has been acquired by the Queensland, Victoria and NSW State Libraries

The video Drawn Threads will be screened at Textiles and Place conference in Manchester School of Art and Whitworth, 12th -13th April 2018

Photo Credit Jackson Mann

In 2014, as part of Canberra Design Festival, five interdisciplinary designers were invited to reinterpret the rich craftsmanship of Old Parliament House. Each were allocated a specific room and were asked to choose one aspect of design from the House they would like to respond to. Through my research, I was drawn to the craftsmanship and line work of the original furniture designs created for Parliament House by architect John Smith Murdoch. For this work I commissioned the specialist skills of a Master embroiderer Ragat Jain based in Delhi, India. In this work, the stitch came to signify a changing modern multi-cultural Australia. The presence of the textile was powerful in the space, the subtle stitch work embodied the politics of migration and the beauty another culture can bring to our own.