Author Description

Tension[s] 2020Tamworth Textile Triennial, Curator Vic McEwan.Performance, Interaction and Material Futures20/20 Vision is the standard notation used to indicate perfect vision. It bases its declaration of 'perfect' on only one thing: sharpness of vision when standing approximately six metres from an eye chart. Meanwhile, other worthwhile attributes are ignored - such as peripheral awareness, eye coordination, depth perception, focusing ability and colour vision.The saying 'hindsight is 20/20' suggests that the distance afforded by time enables us to better understand the past and that, by extension, hindsight might assist us to make better decisions about our future. But does this reflection take into consideration the diversity of perspectives required to really learn from the past?If there is one thing that hindsight has taught us, it is the danger of drawing meaning from only one perspective.Tension(s) 2020 acknowledges that the world has long been a place under various tension(s), both harmonious and dissonant. In order to bear witness to, contribute to and respond to these tensions, the triennial will focus on the future of people and place through textile as a material and human experience as materiality. By exploring other perspectives through the metaphor of tension, we ask:How could textiles consider people and place in developing new installation ideas?How might textiles collaborate with other interactive mediums to offer new perspectives?How can we articulate complex narratives through engaging textiles in performance?I hope that, through Tension(s) 2020, the materiality of our combined working practices and perspectives can be realised beyond the scope of a rather parochial, one-dimensional, 20/20 view.2020 Artists and Arts OrganisationsSoraya Abidin NSWMark SmithArts Project Australia VICDel StewartAustralian Tapestry Workshop VICGillian Bencke NSWJulie Briggs and Kelly Leonard NSW Armando Chant NSWGeorgia Chapman VICLinda Erceg TAS Anne Ferran VICDian