Jane Bodnaruk

What do we choose to remember from the practice of nurturing and maintenance modelled by our mothers? Who acknowledges the significance of mother/daughter relationships?

Jane Bodnaruk’s silk fabric is serendipitously printed and stained with the marks of leaves and buds by a process of tight rolling, binding and boiling. She has stitched five generations of women - her matriarchal tree - from her great-great grandmother to her daughters. Girls, women, daughters, wives and mothers.

"sow

sew the matriarchal tree

love … care … respect

gather the branches, the buds, the leaves

reap

I sew. Taught by my mother. I learnt the construction stitches and techniques necessary to produce clothes. It was love.

I went camping. Taught by my mother. I learnt to tread lightly on the ground and to fully absorb the essence of the bush. It was care.

I identify plants by their scientific names. Taught by my mother. I learnt the families, the species, who was related to whom. It was respect."

Currently Jane is undertaking a Master of Visual Art (Textiles) at ANU, Canberra and exhibits with untethered fibre artists inc.

Image: Jane Bodnaruk, Matriarch, 2018, COTA
Materials: silk fabric, leaf staining, hand stitch