Oakes, Leonie (AUS)
Some stories have filtered through
As with previous works created by artist Leonie Oakes the pattern for the dress will be sculpted directly onto the body. A sleeve becomes a cuff, a collar becomes a headpiece, the skirt will transform into the pages of a book.
This dress has come from the shore and the night. Some stories have filtered through will be of the earth and the bush. The starting point for imagery for this work is an endangered Australian native bird, introduced and endemic plants and an old rusty fire folk (circa 1890) that shows signs of decaying and being reclaimed by the earth. Each connected and layered.
This work will bring traces of a story that has come from previous works and continue the same but very different story. Some stories have filtered through is another chapter in the library so to speak where another fragment of the story will reveal.
Leonie has collaborated on this piece with papermaker Joanna Gair. Joanna has chosen hemp bast and malted barley as her source materials. Both are post-manufacturing byproducts from two, very different Tasmanian enterprises. “Experimenting with local fibres enables me to interpret place as I experience it, through the time-honoured processes of making paper by hand.”
The handmade paper elements have been combined with Japanese and rag papers. Leonie will incorporate these paper elements (handmade and manufactured) into the work utilising layers of ink, dye, rusting, patina, stitching, printmaking, a glow pigmentation, and natural dying techniques.
materials
Handmade hemp by Joanna Gair, Awagami, kozo, antique aerogram, hahnemuhle cotton rag/silk organza, ink, dye, watercolour, tapioca paste, glow in the dark pigments, ribbon, Velcro, thread
Leonie is a Tasmanian artist based in nipaluna/Hobart. She is one of Paper on Skin’s most awarded artists.
In 2012 she was awarded the 2012 Betta Milk and Burnie Regional Art Gallery Sustainable Fashion Award.
In 2022 she was awarded the inaugural Temple-Smith Lawyers (Linda Johnston Director) Major Award $1500 for Between the lines a story lies for our sister competition Paper off Skin, along with the Award in Honour of Pam and Neil Thorne - a special award which reflects the core concept of Paper on Skin™, sponsored by Janet De Boer OAM.
In 2024 Leonie was selected as the Paper on Skin™ artist to participate in a cultural exchange with the Lucca Biennale Cartasia in Lucca, Italy.
During their biennial summer festival, Leonie’s piece Slippage: two small figures scrambled to their feet was displayed, while the work of James Dimech (representing the biennale) was presented and displayed at the Paper on Skin™ events in Devonport.
See the Work on Film
Photos Credit: Grant Wells Photo