What's On

The latest exhibition at Hawthorn’s Town Hall Gallery pays homage to past lives and labour with a new, immersive installation created by Louise Saxton. Melbourne artist Louise Saxton has been collecting domestic linens since 1988 and has been extracting and reconstructing the embroidery and lace from the linen for more than a decade to build several major bodies of work, including two and three-dimensional assemblages.

For The Linen Project Louise has created an installation with the support of an 18-month artist in residence program through Caritas Christi at St Vincent’s hospital in Kew. The work acknowledges the intrinsic role of linens in the healing and care of patients in a hospital setting.  

Louise said: “Many of the leftover doilies, tea cloths, tray and table cloths have a unique negative space, which mimics the embroidered motif that it once held. Others have more random negative shapes from less-painstaking extraction. The viewer will be surrounded and, in some way held by, the protective and comforting materiality of linen. The Linen Project pays homage to my mother, her mother and all the mothers who have made and used domestic linens to care for their families.”

Saxton will also host two Walk and Talk sessions where viewers can gain a deeper understanding of the exhibition, taking place on 27 October and 21 November.