Boni Cairncross, 'The way horizons are formed', 2021, hand embroidery on silk noil, 150 x 80 cm — SEE

Upcoming and recent events that can be viewed: exhibitions, performances and publications

Threads

17 November - 17 December 2023, Jennings Kerr, Robertson NSW

Opening reception: Saturday 18 November 2023, 2-4pm.

Featuring: Boni Cairncross, Tristan Chant, Hannah Cooper, Harriet Goodall

Care Structures

29 September - 22 October 2023, M16 Artspace, Canberra ACT

Opening Reception: Thursday 29 September 2023, 6pm-8pm

Curated by Kate Vassllo. Featuring: Matthew Allen, Kirsten Biven, Boni Cairncross, Sanne Carroll, Emma Fielden, Rubaba Haider, Annelies Jahn, James Lieutenant, Britt Salt, Kate Vassallo, Constanze Vogt, Nina Walton & Belinda Yee

SUMMER SALON

3 - 19 December 2022, Jennings Kerr, Robertson NSW

Opening and Christmas drinks: Saturday 10 December, 2pm-6pm.

Featuring: Boni Cairncross, Tristan Chant, Gary Christian, Hannah Cooper, Imbi Davidson, Sarah Enright, Vanessa Forbes, David Hamilton, Miho Ichise, Ochre Lawson, James Lieutenant, Harry Martin, Ceara Metlikovec, Julie Pennington, Michael Philp, Bonnie Porter Greene, David Ryrie, Tanya Wales

quietly, carefully, casually

17 September - 8 October 2022, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney NSW

Opening: Saturday 17 September, 10:30am-12pm.

A group exhibition curated by James Gatt, featuring Diana Baker Smith & Veronica Tella, Boni Cairncross, Sarah Mosca, Sarah Rodigari. The exhibition is accompanied by a text by Judy Annear.

LOOPS & TANGLES

June - September, 2022, Village Practice, Wollongong, NSW

Loops & Tangles is a solo exhibition that presents a new body of work of textile artworks that employ machine and hand embroidery, natural dyes and screenprinting in process-based actions.

Colour of puddles

2 - 20 February 2022, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Sydney NSW

Colour of Puddles brings together three contemporary artists – Boni Cairncross, James Lieutenant and Kate Vassallo – to stage a conversation about colour and abstraction. Spanning a range of approaches, including drawing, painting, printmaking and textiles, Colour of Puddles explores diverse intersections of colour, process, and materiality.

Horizon of possibility

1- 20 November, 2021. A cellular network exhibition of ideas. Curated by James Gatt. With contributions by: Adelle Mills, Anthony Johnson, Boni Cairncross, Brendan Van Hek, Brian Fuata, Burchill McCamley, Diana Baker Smith, Elizabeth Pulie, Ian Milliss, Julie Fragar, Kate Mitchell, Lauren Brincat, Lucina Lane, Matthew Griffin, Mike Parr, Mitchel Cumming, Newell Harry, Sarah Rodigari, Tony Schwensen

Boni Cairncross, Felt and Action Workshop process photo — TOUCH

Upcoming and recent events for participation: workshops and teaching

transformations of a line: fibre art workshop

A 5 week fibre art workshop that introduces participants to two-dimensional and three-dimensional textile art processes. Focusing on concepts of transformation and line, participants learn how to create string and ropes, processes for drawing with threads and making objects or hangings that create surfaces from lines. The practical workshops are contextualised through artist case studies and histories of textile art practices.

Colour and Material Alchemy: embroidery workshop

A 1 day workshop that explores materiality and colour through contemporary hand-stitching and embroidery practices.

FELT + ACTION WORKSHOP

A 1 day workshop that explores ideas of ‘the trace’ through textile and performance art strategies.

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Boni Cairncross, image of the studio table during natural dye process — ABSORB

Upcoming and recent events for absorption in process: artist residencies and performance developments

AHarp: Arquetopia foundation

2021-2024. Beginning during the covid-19 pandemic, this artist residency has been a long-running program working remotely with Arquetopia Foundation (Mexico). The creative research project underpinning this residency focuses on cochineal - a natural dye that produces vibrant reds, pinks, and oranges. By focusing on cochineal, the creative research project is investigating the threads that connect cochineal and prickly pear, ideas of ‘Empire’ and disparate geographical locations including Australia, Mexico and Peru. The artist residency will conclude with a month long onsite residency in Cusco, Peru in 2024.

UOW ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE AT AAIA

December 2019, University of Wollongong artist-in-residence at the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens (AAIA), Athens, Greece. Awarded by the School of the Arts, English and Media, University of Wollongong.

Arquetopia Foundation

June 2019, natural ink silkscreen artist residency, Arquetopia Foundation, Oaxaca, Mexico.

if they are sleepy, then let them sleep

February 2016, performance development residency, IO Myers Studio, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Awarded and supported by The Creative Practice Lab, University of New South Wales.

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Cairncross - conference paper presentation image — HEAR

Upcoming and recent events that can be listened to: lectures, presentations and artist talks

Soft Actions

3 December 2022, panel at AAANZ Conference

Convenor: Boni Cairncross // Speakers: Diana Wood Conroy, Francisco Guevara, Connie Anthes & Ju Bavyka, Linda Erceg, Samantha Lang, Deborah Eddy

Historically, craft has often been positioned as ‘other’ to art. In Modernist thought, craft practices, such as textiles, were framed as too conservative, uncritical and embedded in daily life to be the ‘stuff’ of visual arts. In recent years, there has been a revaluing of craft practices. The processes and materials associated with craft have been employed by artists and designers as critical sites for discussion, advocacy, activism and protest. These actions are wide-ranging: from collective making spaces, to projects that seek to open conversations and debates, to artworks that employ craft to interrogate intersecting or overlooked histories, to craft-as-protest. In these creative strategies, the familiarity, the ‘softness’, and embodied knowledges of the craft processes are powerful devices that are drawn on and utilised by creative practitioners.