2015

The Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award celebrates the diversity and strength of Australian textile art. Building on Wangaratta's long and prominent history of textile manufacturing, and craft making, the award furthers this unique tradition and social history by elevating and promoting the development of contemporary textile practice in Australia.

Winner 

Kate Just was the recipient of the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2015 for her work, SAFE BANNER, 2014.

Award judge Katie Somerville, Senior Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria, commented that she was moved by the collaborative way Just had created her work, working with community members across Melbourne to create the knitted squares of builders twine that were pieced together to make the banner. She also acknowledged that the projects which resulted in the banner’s creation, along with the associated photographs of public walks with the banners, highlighted the issue of violence against women which is incredibly pertinent to Australian contemporary society in 2015.

Just noted of her winning work:

“Winning this award for SAFE BANNER is very significant for me. I have spent the last three years producing a range of community engaged projects, many of them to do with envisioning a better, less violent world. I am thrilled that this sombre but also hopeful work, produced by so many optimistic hands, will have its home in Wangaratta, in a respected textile collection that holds the work of artists I deeply admire.”

Two works were given a highly commended accolade, Susie Losch’s installation piece Teasel which incorporates dried flower heads known as ‘teasels’ which were traditionally used to comb wool before the invention of metal cards; and John Parkes’ Quilt For The Ironing Board – Ironing Bored which has reinterpreted a vintage ironing board cover and linen with thousands of colour-toned hand stitches.

Kate Just, SAFE BANNER, 2014, bricklayer’s yarn, retroflective thread, nylon, cotton, aluminium, 120 x 200 x 2.5cm. Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection. Winner of the 2015 Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award.