Deborah Burdett
Deborah Burdett
Deborah Burdett is a Sydney based ceramic and textile artist. The journal is written as a tally mark of her stitching with single-phrase comment on the end of each counting day.
“CORONAITISMANIA.
ISOLATIONPHOBIA.
OUTBREAKSTERIA.”
Describe the experience of the period of isolation for you.
As an only child, with no children or partner, life in isolation wasn’t that different from my normal life. 24/7 solo life is at times a challenge - and the ‘home stay' period of isolation exacerbated a sense of overwhelming loneliness.
What does your book represent and how did you approach the challenge?
The book represents a diary of the one creative piece that I made in these months - a Slow Stitching work entitled ’Sololation’ and that was displayed as part of Sydney Craft Week. The book internally writes all the feelings, emotions, word plays and lingo that was stitched onto my major work, with a daily word count. The book was a way of diarising and immortalising my now sold - Sololation.
What do you hope will change in Australia as a result of the pandemic?
Changes in Australia - I hope there is an increased sense of kindness, collaboration, and bipartisan approach to our ongoing issues.
Deborah Burdett is a ceramist and textile artist now based in Rushcutters Bay.
Her transformation from ceramist into mixed media and textile artist came via her experience designing for and collaborating with cancer patients and their families via the Arterie program of arts health engagement that she cofounded in 2013. Deborah believes in craftivism and craft as comfort. Her previous careers in farming, rural land management and town planning see her work peppered with community and social justice issues via design and execution. The hand-made, tradition, discordance and the inclusion of found objects are all factors that are celebrated in her work.
View Deborah Burdett's journal here:
Image: Deborah Burdett, Design/Isolate Journal (detail), 2020