Since moving from Scotland to Australia in 1989, Jill Kinnear has responded to her experiences as a Scottish-Australian, both as an artist making large public art works, and as a textile designer and maker.
In 2005, based in Toowoomba, Kinnear began to make printed textiles that focus on the airport as a modern gateway of migration. After making metal structures of paisley and tartan patterns, she passed them through the baggage X-ray machine at Brisbane airport. She saved digital images and manipulated them to create repeat patterns. In 2006 Sydney textile design studio Longina Phillips began digitally printing these patterns onto silk fabrics.
Kinnear found the process to be richly rewarding because of the new skills she acquired, the new processes she experienced and the collaborative relationships that were forged.
Work derived from this project was included in the 2007 Powerhouse Museum exhibition 'Smart works: design and the handmade’.
- Writers:
- Powerhouse Museum
- Date written:
- 2013
- Last updated:
- 2013
