carly preston, paper wall

In conjunction with the 2008 Next Wave Festival in Melbourne, Craft Victoria was pleased to be able to co-host Carly Preston's Paper Wall, a foray into 'craft in the public space' and a discussion on the relationship between interior and traditional craft methods.

We roped Carly into posting about her process:



Paper Wall is about generations, and more closely families and the passing down of knowledge and traditions.

My journey in the Next Wave Festival started as a Regional Kickstart recipient. A keen printmaker from the rural town of Elmhurst, (located just outside Ararat), my work sought to address issues of femininity; ornate motifs and the way they are employed to express the feminine. Next Wave became a platform or means for my work to connect with broader more metropolitan audience and peers.

The developmental outcome stage of this project involved working with the Ararat Country Women’s Association members looking at the employment of motifs and or patterns in the everyday lives of these women.

Whilst the developmental stage of my project was on a community based level, and looking at the ways in which women in regional and remote areas use pattern and motifs, particularly through art and craft activities to connect; Paper Wall has had more of a personal significance with the focus being on the women in my family.
The rose design and even the choice of colours all relate to domestic crockery items. Dessert bowl of my nanna Carey’s that has been passed down through four generations. And a gravy boat that has been passed down form a great aunt.
The printing process involved 21 individual pieces of linoleum. The blue dotted background was created using a large A3 piece and individually hammering out each hole to create the dots. And the other pieces were hand cut out of the lino. They were then printed, in two stages; the blue background colour and the green and pink of the flowers was printed first, then the paper is lifted except for one end, and with the background remaining in place, the green and pink pieces were taken out to slot the black detailed pieces in and run through the press again. This whole process takes anywhere up to 30 mins approximately.

The plain blue dotted backgrounds are another A3 sheet of lino with the holes cut out and are straight forward printing only once, and only taking approximately 10 mins to do.

Carly's Paper Wall was at the Wesley Melbourne Mission during the Next Wave Festival. She then re-printed and reconfigured the work to display in the Craft Victoria window until last weekend.