A new exhibition at the Manningham Art Gallery gives new life to old clothing, transforming memories into works of art.   

Textile Temporalities, by Melbourne artist Shannon Slee, is now on show until Saturday 20 December.

Shannon creates works of art from discarded clothing and the exhibition explores the rhythms of craft, memory and human connection.

Central to the exhibition will be a colloborative artwork created by local residents using items of clothing that hold special memories for them, which will go on show from Thursday 4 December.

“The idea is to unpick it and think about the memories of that item of clothing, and recall something about their personal life. In the act of doing it with some friends, it becomes a shared space through materiality,” Shannon explained.

Shannon and the participants will then piece these fragments together into a new artwork, which will hang alongside Shannon’s own pieces in the exhibition. This work will be on show from early December.

Gallery visitors will also be able to get involved – recording their own connection to textiles by drawing or writing on linen ribbons or pieces of card, and adding their contribution to another wall installation.

“Usually, visitors to a gallery sit back and look at the walls, at what an artist has done, but this is an opportunity for viewers to be really involved, and it’s their work that ends up on display,” Shannon said.

Shannon hopes the exhibition prompts reflection on “the importance of textiles, that they hold something very valuable, because they sit on our body and move with us in our day-to-day lives”. 

The word temporalities means time, she explained, “but also that fabric can remind us of another time we lived in, and how we bring these different times together”.

Manningham Art Gallery, 687 Doncaster Road, Doncaster, is open Wednesday to Saturday, 11:00am to 4:00pm. Entry is free.

Visit our exhibition event listing for more information.