Emma Davies — 'Pelt' Sculptural Textile, 2025

Makers Mark is a series of sculptural works made from manipulated industrial baler twine. Through repetitious gestures, Davies works intimately with the material to produce new surface qualities through a learnt understanding of how this fibre responds to heat, tension and weaving. Intuitively pressing, twisting, joining and mark making through self-developed process-driven techniques. In working with this material, Davies acknowledges the history of rural and industrial labour and draws on the agricultural memories found within the material. The unique qualities of the material have been carried forward - the marks, stains, and wear - to recall its previous uses and the human stories connected to them. 

The twine, previously a non-descript material designed for farming and food production, has been elevated, repurposed and given a second life in sculptural form, embedded with history and spirit. 

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Emma Davies is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist interested in the interactions between commonplace materials, the hand of the maker and the natural world. Through engaging her materials with simple yet repetitive gestures, Davies embeds more complex value and meaning into otherwise humble materials, transforming baler twine, recycled plastics and netting into sculptural installations suggestive of biomimicry. “My process of discovery and invention is largely experimental. I satisfy my curiosity by working with industrial materials and rethinking traditional craft methods to challenge the possibilities of each creation. My reward is in removing materials from common functionality, such as packaging, and being able to transform and rework what is intrinsically ugly into something beautiful.” Davies’ exhibition practice spans over 25 years. Her installation work is held in corporate and private collections nationally and internationally.

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In The Making

9 August – 20 September

The act of making is at the heart of conceptual exploration in contemporary craft practice. "Process" can be understood as more than a means to create form but also a space where thought is reconciled, and where creative encounters and new discoveries are found.

In The Making presents the work of four makers traversing this space and demonstrating how process and artistic intention are interdependent. The exhibitors have each honed a distinct material practice, from woodworking and stone-carving to electroplating and textiles, working with their chosen materials as autonomous collaborators, alive with history and spirit.

The exhibition speaks to the heart of what it means to be a maker. It highlights the reciprocal and responsive relationships between the practitioner, the application of craft-based skills and the creative expression that is articulated through materials. It’s all in the making.

Read more about the exhibition here:

Material: repurposed bird net, bailer twine, acrylic paint

Dimensions: Approx. 249 x 184 x 30 cm