Below The Tide

H:89cm x W: 51cm
September 2003

This quilt is made from hand-dyed recycled wool blanket with hand-dyed wool thread plus commercial threads and found objects with cotton backing.
It is dedicated to all those who perished at sea while trying to reach Australia. They are part of our historical record and part of our collective psyche but a lot of them don't have recorded names. They just disappeared - leaving behind a void in their original country and making no mark on their new one. They have become one with the fabric of the whole world.

I originally entered this in an exhibition held at the Braemar gallery in New South Wales and it is now going to be part of a retrospective exhibition at the Sydney Quilt Show .

If you look closely you will see bony hands reaching out to the surface. I included bits of gold as refugees try to carry gold with which to start their new life.