'Earthbound' — Emma Shepherd

Artist Statement

Flinders-based weaver Emma Shepherd practices one of the world's oldest crafts with a sensibility of an artist deeply embedded in her environment. Using yarns collected from all around the world allows Shepherd an opportunity to reflect on the deeper history of fibre, its role in human history and weaving's legacy as humanity's earliest algorithms in action. Thinking through the fabric, its strength and structure, as well as the ethos of Bauhaus textiles, Shepherd folds in colours resembling green foliage, the dark tones of tree trunks, the neutrals of the sand and the rock of her hometown. Her work incorporates materials like pine needles, horsehair and bark taken from Shepherd’s immediate surrounds, letting them shape the work in a gentle yet deliberate way.

Theme: SCAPE

All my work is fed by the environment, its inescapable! In the best kind of way. Colours, textures, it all shows in my pieces. I'm always trying to observe the landscape, looking for materials, compositions, repetitive ideas/moments. I couldn't make the pieces I do without living in Flinders, being surrounded by the green, the wind, the bush.

— Emma Shepherd, Flinders