05/09/2026
Next weekend! In Conversation with Susan Wirth
Saturday 12th September 2026, 2pm
Join artist Susan Wirth in conversation with Ararat Gallery TAMA Coordinator Katy Mitchell to celebrate the opening of Susan’s exhibition 'Sleeping, Dreaming, Waking', on Saturday 12th September 2026, 2pm.
'Sleeping, Dreaming, Waking' is a series of textile collages by Susan Wirth, developed through periods of research in and around Ararat and the Wimmera Mallee. The project examines how visitor status, site specificity, and settler heritage intersect in a contemporary textile practice. Using found textiles and second hand woollen blankets - materials tied to industrial manufacturing and histories of colonisation - Wirth constructs geometric, rhythmical compositions that operate as scaffolds for formal and conceptual exploration.
Banksias and wildflowers, observed in fire affected and regenerating environments, introduced a focus on cycles of disturbance, renewal, and adaptation into the project, with seasonal patterns functioning as a structural framework rather than a lyrical subject. Wirth’s process of cutting, arranging, and reassembling textiles emphasises reconstruction and deconstruction as key methodologies, aligning everyday acts of sleeping, dreaming, and waking with incremental processes of making and thinking.
'Sleeping, Dreaming, Waking' positions Wirth's creativity as an experience sorted, filtered, and slowly articulated through material engagement, bringing questions of place, inheritance, and ongoing occupation into view without resolving them, and situating the work within broader discourses on environment, history, and contemporary textile practice.
This event is free entry, with bookings requested and essential to help plan catering and seating → araratgallerytama.com.au/event/in-conversation-susan-wirth/
'Sleeping, Dreaming, Waking' will be open until Sunday 14th February 2027.
📷 Susan Wirth, 'mulla mulla' 2026, wool and arylic, 70cm x 61cm. Photo: Tim Gresham.
