Ruby Joy Eade
Resumes Friday 10 September
Exhibition dates: 31 July - 1 October
Barbara linen, cotton, vintage textiles, 2020.
My great-grandmother kept her wedding veil in a preserving jar on the mantelpiece. I've never seen it (or met her) but my grandma told me about it last year and it hasn’t left my mind.
In a gentle reminder artist Ruby Joy Eade considers the textile ephemera of her own life, the generations that came before her, and those yet to come. A worn out doll's blanket is reimagined large enough for two, garments worn by generations are fragmented across the pixelated surface of a quilt, a network of stitches melts scraps of fabric together into a soft painting. In honouring, archiving and collaborating with these materials Eade converses with their histories, known and unknown.
Textiles in all their forms - clothing, tea-towels, bedding, bags and upholstery quietly shroud our interactions with the world around us. Whether it be a favourite pair of pants, a gauzy tulle memory or a silky scarf snapped up at an op shop, textiles connect with us in a way that is intimate and tactile. Quilts formed from constellations of these fabrics are record keepers, preserving memories and culture. They are artworks that exist mostly in our homes: made to live with, to sleep with, to spill things on, to smell and to touch.
Ruby Joy Eade is an artist and maker based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She works in a range of mediums including print, installation, ceramics and quilts. Her recent work explores the relationship between text and textile, fine art and domestic objects, and the complexities of interpersonal relationships.
