Soft Notes to the Future

This work started when Rockhampton art Gallery invited us to create a work to be installed in their newly opened gallery. We decided to include the local school community in a zine-making activity that could get teens and children to share their experiences of the past 2 years of pandemic upheaval and uncertainty, which we could then feed into any work we make. We sent 600 zines out into the world, asking students to reflect on their lives and potential futures. The ones we got back were beautiful and thought-provoking and focused on how a group of people’s collective dreams and hopes define that community. Below are a few photos from the zines the students worked on. From here, we decided to put the questions students best responded to the broader community so others could reflect and share, to create a colourful, large-scale textile work entitled Soft Notes to the Future.

Inside Gallery 2 of the Rockhampton Museum of Art, we installed a large-scale interactive work from 11 June – 7 August that grew over the course of the exhibition. The large-scale work took the shape of Nurim/Mt Archer, which is visible from the museum’s deck. Prompted by questions about love, the future and growing up, visitors of all ages were invited to sit, discuss and weave their soft textile offerings straight onto the artwork.