Fabric Paintings presents a new series of works by Jacqueline Stojanović, marking the artist’s first solo exhibition at Haydens in Melbourne.

 

Conceived in 2022 during a two-month residency at Lottozero Textile Laboratory in Prato, Italy, the exhibition interprets traditional western modes of display through foundational weaving practice and Stojanović’s experimentational use of free association.

 

Fabric Paintings are a group of diptychs and triptychs which combine the artist’s handwoven cloth with industrial machine woven linens. Through their values in colour, form, production means, and technical history, the fabrics mingle and find balance upon their stretchers. The sections woven by Stojanović in wool and cotton are formed from the  geometric patterns seen in Italian crossword puzzles purchased from newsstands in Prato, which the artist has interpreted as weaving drafts for her countermarch loom. Playing with the hierarchical histories of diptych and triptych painting, in which one panel holds more value than another, and the parameters of ‘general’ knowledge distributed through such national puzzle books, the Fabric Paintings use juxtaposition as a strategy to question wider histories of culture and material.  

 

Using colour to divide, block and fill the walls of the gallery and their borders, the artworks sit within a mural environment. Acting as a frame for the works, the minimal mural references the context in which they were created amidst Italian frescoes and cityscapes, however it is stylistically reminiscent of a domestic wall painting style associated with Serbia and Eastern Europe.

Fabric Paintings continues Stojanović’s exploration into the field of expanded textiles, while playfully furthering her inquiry of the social and cultural shifts in values that map her personal time and place.

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