The Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is a generous
legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895-1982), a former NGV Trustee and Secretary
of the Felton Bequest. The award is arguably the richest and most prestigious
prize ever offered to a contemporary designer, with a prize of $30,000.
Celebrating contemporary design practice in the state of Victoria, each award
has been devoted to a particular medium.
This year’s exhibition highlights the ever-expanding scope of new work
created within the textile medium, as well as the broad range of backgrounds,
approaches and inspirations of the artists who have created the works. In each
of the works there is a pervading sense of unrestricted creative space and
attitude within which they have been conceptualised, made, re-made and assembled.
The fluidity that exists for artists and designers who want to move between
mediums and categories of making is evident in the work created for this award.
Printing, weaving, knitting, stitching and dyeing of fabric are still adopted
by some in a singular sense, but this may also be interchanged, adapted and
appropriated as part of a more pluralistic approach.
Being a tactile and fluid medium, textiles are a rich and accessible manifestation
of our ‘material’ lives. In the domestic, personal, industrial and
scientific realms the role of textiles is forever developing in both familiar and
innovative directions. Textiles are laden with meaning and memory, and it is
these associations and emotional resonances that make them such an appealing
medium in which to create responsive and challenging works.
Louise Weaver is the recipient of this year's
Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award.
Part of the Arts Program of the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival.
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