THEA JONES



A treasured private notebook
Thea Jones & Ella Sowinska

Exhibited on Jagera and Turrbal country
Metro Arts, Brisbane QLD
27 February 2019 – 16 March 2019

Exhibited on Wurundjeri country
Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne VIC
15 June – 11 August 2019 A treasured private notebook is an intimate exploration of shared childhood experiences, ignited through the artists discovering the writing practices of their mothers. Considering the impact of this matrilineal creativity in different ways, both Sowinska and Jones have engaged with their mothers in the creation of their work.

Sowinska’s film 80 Ways is an observational video work developed through an on-set collaboration between artist and mother. The two worked together to play out and dramatise a chapter of Sowinska’s mother’s erotic novel, written under the pseudonym Sandy Mayflower. 80 Ways reveals the idiosyncrasies between mother and daughter, through the psychologically-charged subject of sexual intimacy, often considered too transgressive to discuss in parent-child relationships.

Jones’ large scale textile installation, Jane's Salvation (Paterson's Curse), responds to an essay her mother wrote for the artists’ own exhibition in 2017, exploring nostalgia as a coping mechanism for trauma. Anticipating a scathing review of family dynamics and conservative racist rural politics, Jones instead received a touching story about death, loss, and the function of nostalgia. Jones’ work is a hand embroidered excerpt from her mother’s essay presented on swathes of fabric, alongside the motif of the invasive Paterson’s Curse weed. Covering the land surrounding Thea’s mother’s childhood home with a blanket of purple flowers, Paterson’s Curse is an introduced weed that degrades the environment and though pretty, is toxic to wildlife. Paterson’s Curse has been an ongoing motif in Jones' work, representational for European colonisation, and a subsequent critical investigation and deconstruction of her own role as a white woman living on colonised land.

A treasured private notebook is a poetic and humorous account of two artists exploring the ways we process and absorb—whether consciously or not—the behaviours passed down to us, and how we grapple with these formative parts of ourselves.

A treasured private notebook includes an accompanying publication with essays by Rosie Funder, Diego Ramirexxx, Sandy Mayflower and Jennifer Jones. View the digital catalogue HERE.


WORKS:

Thea Jones
Jane’s Salvation (Paterson’s Curse)
2019
Hand embroidery on cotton voile
Dimensions variable

Ella Sowinska
80 Ways
2018
HD video
31:42



I live and work on the unceded sovereign lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung people. I acknowledge the waterways, country and skies, and offer my respects to elders and communities that have sustained creativity, care for country and resistance for more than 65,000 years.