Collections and Arrangements

One of the pleasures of my childhood was visiting the collections at the Australian Museum in Sydney and seeing the arrangements of rocks, insects and many other forms of natural history arranged into class cases. Although museums have changed greatly since those days, they still have those fascinating arrangements. I have enjoyed the shells and butterflies in the Museum of the Northern Territory in Darwin, the collections at Te Papa in Wellington New Zealand and the arrangement of bird cages at the National Museum of Australian in Canberra. There are also the spontaneous arrangements that people make – like the collection of car hub caps along a fence in western NSW; a row of letter boxes; and shoes hanging from power lines.

So, when I see collections of things, I am apt to “arrange” them in a way that is pleasing to me. Some years ago we had a “plague” of cicadas for 6 weeks and the birds had a feast, leaving the wings on the grass for me to collect. I have arranged kangaroo and sheep bones in Lake Mungo National Park; beach stones on the gravel beaches around Wellington Harbour, NZ; plant stalks from hakea flowers in the Northern Territory; shells; and leaves, everywhere.

It follows that these ideas will become a significant focus in my textiles.