Parallel Threads – Entangled Ends

On view
December 8, 2024 - January 26, 2025
Reception Sunday December 8, 2-5pm

Participating Artists

US Artists
Ellen Ferrin
Paula Becker
Kristin Crane
Wanda Miglus
Holly Emidy
Sandra Negron
Nancy Machado
Robyn Borges
JoAnne Kriskowski
Soraya Ghazi Lutes

Australian Artists
Damaris Parker
Carolyn Kerr
Lynda Flewell-Smith
Anna Maria Mays Vermeer
Hennie Cote
Angelina Martinez
Kelly Nolan
Mieke den Otter
Belinda Whitehouse

Filmmakers
Madelyn Shaw, Historian, Museum Consultant
Trish Fitzsimons, Documentary Filmmaker
Alexander Spiess, Documentary Filmmaker

Singer Songwriter
Mike Laureanno

Guest Curators
Deborah Baronas, Artist
Dr. Janis Hanley, Critical Heritage

Panelists
Madelyn Shaw, Historian, Curator and Museum Consultant - Moderator
Trish Fitzsimons, Documentary Filmmaker
Alexander Spiess, Documentary Filmmaker

Singer songwriter
Mike Laureanno

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Textile Mill closures were a global phenomenon. Since 2019 Deborah Baronas of Rhode Island, USA, and Dr. Janis Hanley, Queensland, Australia, have been developing Parallel Threads, an immersive art installation. It explores the senescence of the textile industry in Ipswich, Australia, 1960s -1990s alongside the analogous demise of the textile industry in the United States.
 
Last year Deborah and Janis co-curated Ipswich Threads. an exhibition as a preview of Parallel Threads. Deborah worked with artists and community members in Ipswich, drawing on Janis’s doctoral research on the region’s textile heritage. Through contemporary art-making and interpretation of archival materials, participants explored the many facets of the heritage of textile production in their community.
 
The exhibition also addressed the relationship between the historical significance and contemporary uses of these mill buildings, raising awareness of the importance of these mill structures and the spirits of the workers within them. It was funded by a Regional Arts Development Fund Grant (City of Ipswich and the Queensland government).
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Now, Parallel Threads – Entangled Ends is on view at the Bristol Art Museum, once again co-curated by Guest Curators Debora and Janis. The project is a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring an art installation, individual artworks, archival research, video, sound, and panel discussions. A series of documentary films, lectures by Scholars and Filmmakers from Australia and the USA will be held throughout the run of the show.
 
This bi-national exhibition explores the parallels and entanglements between Australia and the USA — workers’ experiences; mill closures and impacts and possible futures.
Deborahs’ Previous Works In 2009, through grants from both RISCA and RICH Deborah created The Mill Project a visual study of the history of the textile industry in the northeast. The project focused on the workers, mostly immigrants, and their plight.
The Mill Project evolved into Flowers in the Factory, which brought to life the ways in which mill workers coped with their difficult circumstances, their resolve to make a better life despite the hardships inherent in the industry and how they softened the harshness of the workplace.
Janis’ Previous Works
 Janis’s doctoral research asked, ‘What does heritage create?’, focusing on the former mill sites of Ipswich, interviewing former mill workers, those in mill startups, and local fibre artists.
Janis’s work includes: Harold and Billy’s Legacy Exhibition (QANZAC100 grant); Ipswich Threads Exhibition (RADF Grant); ‘Origin Threads’ of Ipswich’s Mill Heritage (Harry Gentle Fellowship); Croydon’s Chinese Garden heritage (Griffith University Fellowship). Janis is currently working on the Croydon Chinese settlement site signage and sound-trail in Far North Queensland. She has received multiple National Trust Awards.
Janis also holds a B. Commerce and Master of Arts & Media.

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