A handmade tretford rug from Gibbon Group was an integral part of an installation commissioned by the National Gallery Victoria (NGV) for the inaugural NGV Triennial event in 2017.
Victoria Amazonica was a cross-cultural collaboration between Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana, and Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, designers Elliat Rich and James Young, and the Centre for Appropriate Technology, all based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Victoria Amazonica was based initially on a sketch of a giant South American lily made by Campana in Alice Springs. This exuberant, large-scale soft domed structure features intricate embroidery by the Yarrenyty Arltere Artists that tells stories of rain, rivers and water.
Gibbon Group’s design team produced a handmade tretford rug to support the structure.
“The colours of the forest reflected in tretford Lichen’s natural heathered green and golden yellow fibres.”
The design solution
“The idea is to work with the tradition here in Australia with the Indigenous people and to create patterns with the nylon nets. Bring the tradition of the flora of the Brazilian forest, the Victoria Regia plant, the water plants, and to make a pavilion inspired in this,” Campana explained.
“We are so proud to see all these people here in Melbourne to see what work we are doing. We did a good job with our hands and we sewed every day. When we walk into the art centre, we’d just sew,” Yarrenyty Arltere artist Marlene Rubuntja said.
Rich added, “The idea that flows through all of it is this idea of water and our relationship to water across in Sao Paolo but also in Central Australia and how we have very different relationships to water, so when people walk inside they will see this kind of kaleidoscope of stories about water… and not, here is a river… here is a lake… but really the way that water flows through and brings the country and Central Australia to life.”
