THEA JONES



She let her body sway with the movement of the train

Exhibited on Wurundjeri country
Kings ARI, Melbourne VIC
15 July 2021 – 6 November 2021 One of my mum’s favourite complaints about her childhood is being forced to wear scratchy home-made underwear, and as kids we were always reminded about how lucky we were to have shop-bought undies.

She let her body sway with the movement of the train considers the role of nostalgia in popularising craft-based practises, and the return to the artisanal as a growing (upper) middle class mode of homemaking. Utilising multiple forms of hand-crafting, this exhibition delves into the intersections of class, queerness, rural upbringing, and the construction of white settler femininity in so-called Australia, to critically engage with becoming and being a “good white (country) girl.”

Images courtesy Aaron Claringbold.


WORKS:

Thea Jones
Autoprogettazione chairs
2021
Handcrafted Tasmanian oak chairs
Dimensions variable

Thea Jones
Wagga blanket (celtic knot)
2021
Hand embroidery (hand-spun alpaca wool dyed with blackberries) on hessian.
100 x 100cm

Thea Jones & Bonnie Cummings
Together forever
2021
Spoken word and music
22 mins



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.