July 24

Bowness Photography Prize, Museum of Australian Photography

I am humbled and thrilled to have been selected as a finalist for the BPP! Thank you and congratulations to all the finalists. the confidantes is a series of embroideries made over six years and documented by photographer, Frances Mocnik.

Bowness Photography Prize 2024

June 24

what is held, is here: my exhibition is on until 25th August at the Wollongong Art Gallery.

cloak (das hajar tender stranger), 2024

The public program runs as follows:

Wed 5th June 11.00 am - artist talk

Wed 3rd July 11.00 am - Ritual and Repair: a conversation that considers crafting, mending and creative practice. With writers Jackie Bailey, Helena Fox, and artists Anita Johnson, Michele Elliot; moderated by Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis.

Each Thursday, I'll host 'a tablecloth and three chairs' sewing circle. It is an invitation to come along with your stitching or craft project in the gallery with my work, and in conversation with others.

Sunday 25th August: finnisage and final walk through of the exhibition.

June 22

I am enormously thankful to the Australia Council for the Arts ..

for awarding me an Arts Project Grant for an exhibition in 2024 at the Wollongong Art Gallery. I will be creating a new body of work, and showing in two gallery spaces. The exhibition will run from June 1 - August 25.

It really is an honour to be selected for this grant, and I look forward to letting you know more closer to the date.

A workshop in Shroud Making, Fremantle WA - April 2024

Hey there friends and fellow stitchers in the West.

Following on from assisting people create shrouds here in the Illawarra, my friend and palliative care/social worker, Leith Maddock and I have been planning this one day workshop in WA for some time. Now that travel is possible, we have booked a day at Stackwood in Fremantle in April 2024.

It will be a day of discussion and reflection around end of life, care and 'going away outfits'. We'll guide you through planning and design as well as some hands-on sewing guidance and practical tips for constructing a shroud.

Over the day, we will work through making a simple shroud, and plan ways to tailor it to your own design, incorporate particular fabric and add embellishments and embroidery. Whether you wish to make one for yourself or for someone you care about, the workshop will give you the basics to get started.

Please get in touch if you are interested. I'll be sharing more details before too long.

Feb 22

 p a l i n d r o m e   Clifton School of Arts

 19 - 27 February

                    

(l) persephone, 2014; (r) variants and the garden, 2022 (work in progress)

Nov 20

Thank you CREATE NSW. I have just returned from two days of professional development in Canberra, with sustainable textiles advocate, designer and teacher Samorn Sanixay.

I spent two very productive days with Samorn in   Canberra. We covered a range of processes, worked with different botanical materials in different forms – leaves, barks, flowers, vegetables and fruit. Some freshly harvested, some dried materials, some frozen and others in brine. Steaming, boiling, steeping and more. I came away with a myriad of samples, and pages of notes.

Samorn is an excellent teacher. She shared her much of her knowledge over the time we had together. While her classes do cover a lot of ground, I found the one-to-one learning to be a very rewarding experience.

It is a privilege to be have time to focus on learning, without distraction or other commitments. I have made some small steps towards a new body of work that will incorporate some of these techniques and processes I've returned with. Stay tuned.

This project was funded by the NSW Government, through a Create NSW Quick Response Grant.

Feb 2020

The Long Kiss Goodbye

the confidantes (inamorata), 2018, giclee print on Hahnemuhle rag, 40 x 43.5cm

Curated by Gemma Weston for the 2020 Festival of Perth program, this exhibition takes its name from a work by Sarah Contos. It 'explores how artists transform familiar materials and symbols into complex meditations on love, loss, attraction and repulsion: the ashes of visual diaries become ceremonial jewellery, fragments and studio scraps become an epic patchwork of memories, and simple actions become poignant rituals.'

Artists: Sarah Contos (NSW), Penny Coss (WA), Iain Dean (WA), Brent Harris (VIC), Clare Peake (NT) and Michele Elliot with Tender Funerals (NSW).

Presented in association with Perth Festival and supported by Visual Arts Program Partner Wesfarmers Arts.

Works included comprise a selection of the tender cloths, along with the confidantes photographs.

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA

Opening Friday 7th February 6.00 pm

Exhibition runs 8 February - 9 May

For more information, click The Long Kiss Goodbye

I'm pleased to be presenting at the Ritual and Empathy : A Symposium along with Jenny Briscoe-Hough, General Manager at Tender Funerals.

Join us on Saturday 21st March, full details in the link above.

And two stitch workshops Fragments and Thread - Thursday 19 and Friday 20 March

Aug 19

Artist in Residence : SPHERE

(Sydney Partnership for Health Research and Enterprise)

Following on from Tender Funerals REALM, I've been working with SPHERE on a collaborative project that brings together artists and researchers in the area of health and well-being, under the platform of Knowledge Translation. Each artist has been paired with a Clinicians Academics Group.

I'm working with the Palliative Care group whose aim is to improve palliative care and end of life outcomes to enhance the quality of life for adults and children living with progressive or advanced illnesses and their caregivers.  My project began in a series of informal conversations with people who work in or come to Palliative Care, through different circumstances. These include clinicians, ward staff, care-givers, advocates, families and volunteers. Their words and phrases will be incorporated into an ephemeral textile installation.

Our collective works will be presented in' the HIVE', a specifically designed structure, at the Partnerships for Better Health Symposium, 29-30th August 2019. The HIVE will then tour around NSW to public spaces such as hospitals and libraries in the community.

Here is Professor Katherine Boydell, from the Black Dog Institute, who is leading the project. She discusses knowledge translation from an academic/research perspective.

artists, research and knowledge translation

Jun 2019

Artist talk : REALM Tender Funerals

Saturday 22nd June, 12.00 pm at Project Contemporary Artspace

One of the projects I've worked on during my residency, is a collection of ephemeral textile pieces. These feature in the exhibition and I will discuss this and other works at my talk.

The Tender Cloths have been made with the generosity of some Tender families, who have donated their funeral flowers to the project. In exchange I have given them a silk scarf dyed from these flowers as a keepsake.

Please join me for this conversation.

Tender Cloths was funded by Culturebank Wollongong, and I thank them for their support.

Tender Funerals are holding a celebration of their REALM Artists in Residence Project. REALM was set up through a grant from Create NSW. It initiated ground breaking work where families have the opportunity to work with artists and musicians for personal involvement in the bereavement of their person. Using music and song, textiles or installation to create a ceremony, an artwork or an intimate commemoration of their person, each experience was unique for the family.

As part of REALM, Tender Community Choir was formed under the guidance of renowned local musicians Jodi Phillis and Malika Reese. The choir meet fortnightly and have been singing at events in the Illawarra, recently at Wollongong Memorial Gardens Mother’s Day gathering. The choir will perform and launch their CD of songs on love and remembrance.

The Tender Cloths project, coordinated by Michele Elliot, will feature in the exhibition. These ephemeral fabric works have been made with donated funeral flowers from Tender families. After the exhibition, the cloths will go to Tender to be used as part of their mortuary care. In addition, Michele is also exhibiting artworks developed during the time of her Tender residency, on the theme of cloth, memory and loss.

Please join us for the exhibition opening and Tender Community Choir’s CD launch.

Opening : THURSDAY 20^th JUNE 6.00- 8.00 pm

Guest Speaker: Ann Martin, Wollongong City Councillor and Community Advocate

Project Contemporary Artspace, 255 Keira Street, Wollongong

Exhibition runs from 21^st June – 7^th July

Gallery hours: Wed-Fri 11-5; Sat-Sun 12-4

Oct 2018

making : memory

Rox de Luca  Michele Elliot  Laurie Paine

the lovers, 2017-18 (detail); gifted clothing, cotton thread, mapping pins

making : memory came about through exchanges between the artists that focus on collecting and accumulation, gesture and process. This body of work presented by De Luca, Elliot and Paine coheres in material conversations around the life of textiles and objects. The artists incorporate once-used and familiar objects, re-imagined and transformed through weaving, stitching and assemblage.

Artist, writer and curator, Lisa Sharp has responded to the exhibition.

Read it here: making memory

An exhibition at Articulate Upstairs in Leichhardt 6th - 21st October.

Gallery hours : Friday Saturday and Sunday 11.00 am - 5.00 pm

497 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt

Sep 2018

some kind of longing : textile works 1995-2018

Tamworth Regional Gallery

This survey exhibition was commissioned by Ararat Regional Art Gallery in 2014, and came about after I had visited the gallery to install a large thread drawing that was part of the first Tamworth Textile Triennial in 2012. There is a nice circularity in taking the show to Tamworth, and I would like to thank to Bridget Guthrie and Pam Brown for this opportunity. The Tamworth iteration includes three large installations, small embroideries and stitched pieces and new photographic works.

The title comes from a large thread drawing made and exhibited in 2012 at Articulate project space. It is a distillation of images of the Himalayas as seen from Darjeeling where my mother lived as a young woman. Married to a Scottish tea-planter, she has mixed memories about this time. Happy as my brothers were born here and also difficult because of the distance from family. She said the landscape was spectacular, with Katchenjunga and the mountains always a presence, white and majestic. She recalls groves of cardamon trees, rhodoendrons and otters in the river. As a child I was entranced by her small black and white photos of this landscape. I have several versions of this image; those taken by my mother, others are old postcards as well as those from my visits to Darjeeling.

There are ghosts tangled up in the drawing out of this work. There is the desire to manifest some kind of connection to the past, to make sense of something that now only exists in memory, through the back and forth, through the loops and actions of the drawing.

I will be remaking some kind of longing for the Tamworth exhibition.

thinking drawing from my notebook, 2008 (4x2 cm); the idea materialised at Ararat Regional Art Gallery, 2016 (400x180 cm)

Opening: Sunday 16^th September, 2-4pm

Tamworth Regional Gallery,

Peel Street, Tamworth NSW

some kind of longing : textile works 1995 - 2014  - catalogue and essay by Anthony Camm

beads and velvet : John Douglas

The latest costume work for Sydney artist and filmmaker, John Douglas is part of his ongoing Circles of Fire project. He is performing as part of Liveworks 2018 at Carriageworks in Sydney, 24-28th October.


I've been working with John for the last three years on this ever-expanding epic work, in costume design and production. John has lived with kidney disease for over ten years, and his work is informed by this lived experience. We met not long after he had undergone his transplant operation. John is one of the most dedicated practitioners I know; we once had a production meeting in his hospital room. Go see this, it will blow your mind.

Read more here on this project in John's own words

Image: Circles of Fire – The Amphitheatre, promotional image, courtesy the artist and Performance Space, copyright 2018

Aug 2018

what is held, is here : Remembering Artemis

In conjunction with the exhibition, Gemma Weston has gathered together a number of former Artemis members to reflect and write on this formative time on the contexts of art practice and feminisms in Perth. Remembering ARTEMIS is in production through UWA Publishing and will be available in December 2018. My contribution, what is held, is here, is an essay based on a thirty-year friendship and collection of correspondence with artist Jo Darbyshire.

Remembering ARTEMIS out in December 2018

back in the day! 
No Second Thoughts: Reflections on the ARTEMIS Women's Art Forum 

The Perth women's art collective ARTEMIS, active between 1985-1990, is the basis for a new exhibition by the Curator Gemma Weston, Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery in Perth.

There are two components to this project. Firstly a wonderful exhibition 'No Second Thoughts' with works by former Artemis members, Penny Bovell and Jo Darbyshire and early career artists, Teelah George and Taylor Reudavey. 

The second component is a collection of historical documents, photographs, notebooks, posters, artworks and more, that Gemma has carefully and critically compiled from the Artemis archives held in the Battye Library of WA, along with contributions from former members. I rummaged through my old journals and papers and sent a bundle of stuff that marked some of the highlights, actions and interventions of those years in Perth. And I got to spend time some of these women who were part of where this business of art began. There were many who couldn't make it and some who were sorely missed on the night.

A huge thank you to Gemma Weston, what an awesome job you've done!

Artemis members then and now

l: Thyrza Michele, Jo Darbyshire, Linda Rawlings, Anne Jeppe, Michele Elliot, Joanne Harris, Pam Kleemann, 1985

r: Penny Bovell, Margot Watkins, Jo Darbyshire, Michele Elliot, Pam Kleemann, Linda Rawlings, Terri-Ann White, Joanne Harris, Jane Siddell, Annette Seeman, Robyn Taylor, 2018

In addition, the Cruthers Collection acquired this poster design artwork made in 1990 for the 6UVS-FM radio program, Burning Down the House. Until recently, it has been hidden away in amongst other papers. I couldn't wish for a better place for it to reside.

No Second Thoughts : Remembering ARTEMIS is on at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia : 1st September - 8th December, 2018

Jul 2017

Tender Funerals artist in residency

This artist-in-residency project at Tender Funerals has been running for some time now, and is been generously supported by an Arts and Cultural Project grant received at the end of 2017. Tender is a not-for-profit, community driven organisation in Port Kembla. I'm working with musicians, Malika Elizabeth and Jodi Phillis, who bring their deep knowledge and experience as singers, composers and performers. Who knows, we may well be the first artists and musicians in residence in a funeral home.

My involvement has been to run a fortnightly sewing circle as part of Tender's After Care work. I work with families to find ritual or bring a creative expression in farewelling their loved one. There is no formula or prescriptive way in which this happens, and no specific form or material. It might be intimate and subtle, or public and celebratory. It is always guided by their knowledge and wishes. I heed Tender’s driving force and General Manager, Jenny Briscoe-Hough who says ‘The family are the experts, they know their person and are the best ones to decide on what to do’. Wise words, and its true … they do know.

I've also been making these Tender Cloths. Flowers from funeral services, usually discarded, have been used to dye lengths of muslin. Traditionally muslin is used to make soft wraps and swaddling for newborn babies and here I'm bringing it back to the body to commemorate the end of a life.  

This is supported by grant from Culturebank Wollongong, for which I am extremely grateful.

Tender Cloths at Our Community Remembers, a gathering on the Winter Solstice at Mt Keira Girl Guide Camp.

Jul 2016 

John Douglas Circles of Fire

These are two of the costumes I designed and made for John A Douglas' extraordinary and epic work, Circles of Fire.

Version 1 of his project has been included in The Patient, curated by Bec Dean, at UNSW Galleries, Paddington NSW.

An exhibition and performance of Circles of Fire will be presented later in 2016.

Read more on The Patient

velvet applique and beadwork on zentai suits, and a black velvet blindfold, 2015-16

More info on Circles of Fire : John A Douglas

April 2016

some kind of longing : a survey of textile work

Ararat Regional Art Gallery 2nd April - 22nd May

This exhibition will bring together a selection of my textile-based

installations and wall works from 1995-2015. While my work does embrace 

drawing, installation, sculpture and painting, this exhibition reminds 

me that textiles and its inextricable relationship to the body is right

at the heart of my practice. I will be installing my thread drawing

'some kind of longing' in the gallery once the exhibition has opened

so that visitors can watch the work reveal itself over four days.

Thank you to Anthony Camm and the Ararat Regional Art Gallery for this

wonderful opportunity, and to Arts NSW for funding my project through

the Artist Support Grant.

Opening: Sat 2nd Apr 1.00pm

Ararat Regional Art Gallery

Town Hall, Vincent St, Ararat

Mon-Fri: 10.00-4.30

Sat-Sun: 12.00-4.00

'some kind of longing' 2012

cotton thread,mapping pins (440 x 180 cm)

photo: Frances Mocnik

Michele Elliot is a respected mid-career contemporary artist

with a practice defined by a unique engagement with abstraction

as a metaphor for human connectivity and the mapping of

relationships over time. In the last ten year’s Michele’s practice

has become increasingly sculptural and she has worked with a wide range

of materials, including textiles. Her work is strongly informed by

human relationships and geography, with influences including living

alternately on the west and east coasts of Australia, travelling

in search of stories relating to her rich cultural background and

collaborating with artists from other cultures.

Ararat Regional Art Gallery has a longstanding commitment to presenting

and promoting excellence and innovation in textile-based art.

On the basis of Michele’s distinctive work featuring textiles,

the gallery has curated this survey exhibition spanning over

twenty years of her work.

Anthony Camm Director

This project is supported through the NSW Government

through Arts NSW.

Jan 2016

Drawing, Materiality and the Tactile :

teaching at the National Art School Summer School

It was wonderful to teach this week long course again at the

NAS Summer School. And once again, I was impressed by just how

much work our group produced in five days. The first two days

focus on composition, collage and working in 2D with fabric.

The remainder of the week we explore 3D assemblage, deconstruction

and more sculptural forms. We had a lot of visitors at the end

of the week's Open Studio and the students received some great feedback

and admiration at the diverse array of work on display.

And with luck, I'm hoping to see you there for the Winter School 2016

Oct 2015

Moving and Drawing Retreat with Alice Cummins

This three day workshop was held at the Riddells Creek Studio. We worked 

over three days in this beautiful bush setting moving and drawing 

in the studio, undertaking reflective mapping work and in a responsive

site-specific installation. 

Find out more about Alice Cummins here ...

June 15   

Slowing Down Time 4

Jo Law, Louise Curham, Michele Elliot and Sue Healey

Opening Friday 12th June 6.00 pm

Belconnen Arts Centre

118 Emu Bank Belconnen ACT

To be opened by Dr Gordon Bull, Senior Lecturer

Centre for Art History and Art Theory,

Australian National University

Artist talks: Sun 21st June; Sun 5th July

(opening hours: Tue - Sun 10.00am-4.00 pm)

This is the fourth iteration of an ongoing collaboration between

Jo, Louise, Michele and Sue. Starting with the premise of

slowing down time, they use with installation, sculpture,

choreography and moving image to construct new work. Each week

of the project, one artist takes over the foyer space, adding

to what the artist before them has left behind. Over the four

weeks, unexpected new works emerge, created together by the

four artists. Slowing Down Time is a project rather than an

exhibition, offering visitors an experience of the artists’ process.

You can follow this project, and its three previous iterations here: 

the art of slowing down time

slowing down time 3 : Articulate project space, 2014

April 2015  

Costume design project

Very excited to be designing costumes 

for Sydney based performance artist John A. Douglas'

research and development on his new project 'Circle of Fire'. 

John's work investigates his life changing experience of renal

transplant. 

Liminality, the body, visceral velvet ... 

www.johnadouglas.com.au

March 2015         

Notes towards a Future Feminist Archive

Curated by Lynne Barwick and Bronia Iwanczak

Opening: Friday 6th March 6.00 pm

Affilated Text at Cross Arts Books

33 Roslyn Street, Potts Point, NSW

Exhibition runs 7th Mar - 18th Apr 2015

Open daily 10.00am - 6.00 pm

‘Notes Towards a Future Feminist Archive’ is an exhibition

planned to coincide with Contemporary Art and Feminism’s

(CAF) March launch of ‘Future Feminist Archives’, a program

of eventsthat will include a conference at the

Art Gallery of NSW, an exhibition at Sydney College

of the Arts and a national calendar of associated

exhibitions at regional galleries,university

galleries and artist run spaces.

Affiliated Text: A year-long gallery project exploring visual representations of language.

Nov 2014

Horizon : exploring the West Coast with the Clipperton Project

This exhibition brings together works by 17 artists in response to

the coastline, the horizon and ideas of exploration and adventure. 

The Clipperton Project is a not-for-profit organisation established

in 2010 in Scotland by Jon Bonfiglio, a former theatre director

and poet,that combines exploration, adventure, seafaring,

and art to empower and socially activate citizens.

Opening: Friday 21st November 6.00 pm

Public Program of talks, tours, round-tables and other events

Sat 23rd and Sun 24th Nov

for more info, visit: Horizon at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Fremantle Arts Centre

1 Finnerty Street

Fremantle W.A.

Exhibition runs 22nd Nov 2014 - 26th Jan 2015

fathom, 2014 (detail)

Oct 2014 

slowing down time 3

Jo Law, Louise Curham, Michele Elliot and Sue Healey

closing event and artist talks : Sunday 26th October

Dates: 7th - 26th October

The gallery will be open: Fri-Sun 11am to 5pm

Articulate project space

497 Parramatta Road

Leichhardt, NSW

Slowing Down Time 3 brings these four artists together

for another iteration of their ongoing collaboration. 

Working with sound, installation, moving image, choreography

and drawing, the project sees each of the four work the space for

five days and build upon what has been left by the previous

artist.

You can follow this project, and its earlier iterations here: art of slowing down time

July 2014

whitewash