Public Lecture: Dorothy Caldwell: 29 April 7-9pm

Textile artist Dorothy Caldwell speaks at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney - Out of the Ordinary: Textiles in the Everyday.

When: 7 pm Thursday April 29 2010
Where: COFA Main Lecture Theatre, EG02
             Cnr Oxford Street & Greens Rd,
             Paddington, Sydney,
Cost: Free and open to the public

One of the wonderful qualities of cloth is that it wears out, breaks down and is continuously being re-made into something new. Stitching, mending and patching create a surface of unintended beauty and the sense of “lives lived”. It is from these ordinary practices that Dorothy Caldwell has developed the vocabulary of marks that she uses in the making of her large fabric constructions. The talk will address this aspect of traditional textiles and how it has been used as a basis for Caldwell’s work.

Dorothy Caldwell is a graduate of Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and maintains an active international exhibition and teaching schedule. She has carried out research in Japan, India, and Australia on textile traditions and is the recipient of grants and awards including the prestigious Bronfman Award given to one Canadian craftsperson each year. Her work is included in many permanent collections including the American Museum of Art and Design, Canadian Museum of Civilization, The Carlton and Reta Lewis Collection in Washington D.C., The Canadian Consulate Bangkok Thailand, and the International Quilt Museum and Study Center University of Nebraska.

Dorothy is visiting Australia at the invitation of The Australian Forum for Textile Arts and teaching at their Orange Forum (NSW) in April.