Parallel Threads – Entangled Ends

Ipswich Threads was created in 25 days. The Exhibition was co-curated by Deborah Baronas and myself as a preview of what is possible for an in-situ exhibition at the city’s state heritage listed mill.

I may have gone a little spreadsheet-crazy, but here are some of the stats and visitor comments.

The exhibition brought together 51 elements, a combination of the scrims by Deborah Baronas (4 large installations); new artworks (11) and previously created works (6) from artists in the Ipswich community, and historical artefacts (30).

There was such a spirit of community generosity in staging this exhibtion.

The key requirement for all works shown is a connection to Ipswich’s woollen mills.

Central to the exhibition were Deborah’s Scrims, inspired by archival images of mill workers. Thirty scrims were hand printed for the event. This was only possible in the short time with community assistance. I need to make spcial mention of artists Trisha Hoare and Kellie Nolan who assisted Deborah most days.

In all we counted 194 people visiting Ipswich Threads across the 3 days it was held. Most were locals from Ipswich. And here are a couple of graphs for those who want to know more.

These are all just numbers though, and does little to convey the extraordinary response by visitors attending. We kept a simple register of visitors, with little space to write comments.

The word cloud below. Roughly 60% of the exhibition attendees made comments.

Even with a cramped space, some went to the effort to express a little more …

Cool textiles!
Diverse and Intriguing
Fibre-tastic!
Great way to display history to all generations
Looking forward to the next
Loved the history, loved the hangings.
Lovely going down memory lane
Nice to see some history!
Stunning start to something immense
Such a creative way to showcase history. Very special exhibition.

In less that a month, Ipswich threads tapped a heartfelt interest in the community, for the city’s woollen mill heritage. Many were keen to see Ipswich’s state heritage listed former woollen mill at North Ipswich activated by an exhibition specifically celebrating this heritage.

Already locals are donating artefacts and planning installations for a heritage-art exhibition at the mill. Hopefully it will soon be a reality.

Many thanks to Ipswich City Council and Queensland government for the RADF funding for Ipswich Threads. The City went the extra distance in providing exhibition space, lighting and workshop space at Fire-station 101 – as well as Courtney Strow and her team to support us. A shout out also to the Spinners, Weaver and Fibre Artisans of Ipswich for their enthusiastic support throughout. It was fabulous also to be part of the city’s Galvanised festival.

Feature image by Wayne McDonnell 2023.