While certain materials are highly specific to a place or time, textiles are universal. The proximity fabrics have to the body, as both protection and comfort, garner textiles with intimate and sentimental associations. Often our primary form of self-expression through fashion, a term with its own multitude of meanings including adornment, identity and modes of being. The endless possibility they pose as a suite of materials offers almost unlimited creative application and potential.

Presented in partnership with the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Interwoven: Fibre Art and Fashion celebrates makers working in all forms of fashion and textiles, including dress, jewellery, photography and fibre art. The common thread within this exhibition is exactly that – all works have been created, and rely upon, thread of some form. Connecting them all is their shared experience as artists in residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop.

The Australian Tapestry Workshop offers artists and craftspeople working with textiles the chance to broaden their practice in their world-renowned residency program. Each year, Artists in Residence immerse themselves in their vibrant studio – exchanging knowledge and skills with their tapestry weavers and engaging with local communities through the exhibition of their works, artist talks and workshops.

Curated by Josephine Rout

National Wool Museum

Wadawurrung Country, 26 Moorabool Street, Geelong, 3220.
Daily from 14 February 2026 to 12 July 2026
10:00 AM - 05:00 PM

Exhibiting Artists

Alexi Freeman, Atong Atem, Corin Corocon, Deanne Gilson, Ema Shin, Jordan Gogos, Kait James, Louise Meuwissen, Phil Ferguson, Sai-Wai Foo, Tammy Gilson, Troy Emery

About the Work

“Children of the Sun” explores tropes of the archetypal Chinese and the place of the Chinese migrant in Australian society form the basis for a textile-based installation that addresses stereotypes, misnomers, assumptions, and ignorance that have plagued many in this diverse community. Australians of Chinese descent have been a part of Australian society for over 200 years. They have come from a common cultural thread, but their stories are varied. Many left China and Southeast Asian countries over the years due to social and political upheaval or seeking economic opportunity and a better life. Framed around my own migrant experience, interspersed with the stories of those who have come before. Knowledge and recognition of the past provide a sense of identity and place for a group of people so far from an ancestral homeland. The installation is made up of a series of outfits rendered in half-scale, particularly to play on the misnomer that those of Chinese descent are short in stature and often underestimated. The outfits are inspired largely by popular culture and representation in film and media. Patterns were drafted, fabric cut, and sewn to create miniature outfits made to fit these dress forms. These outfits are rendered in textiles, largely in metallic gold and bright foil-printed fabric.

Dragon Lady: Homage to Anna May Wong, considered to be the first Chinese-American Hollywood star, who was typecast as the aggressive or opportunistic sexual beings or predatory femme fatale

Crazy Rich Asian: Crazy Rich Asian, the upwardly mobile, designer bag carrying, luxury brand shopping, affluent, conspicuous consumer.

Old Guard: Product of the cultural revolution, in the iconic Zhongshan (Mao Suit), the legacy of the Communist rule

Blossom woman: Blossom woman stereotype of Asian women, feminine submissiveness, purely decorative, passive, and compliant

Tang-style jacket; Chinese-style jacket

“Hearts Desire” 2018

“Idle Hands” 2018