Narelle Jubelin
'The Stairway' from 'The Crossing', 1987
petit point with found frame
29.5 x 16.5
cm
signed, dated and inscribed with title (on the reverse)
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In 1987, Narelle Jubelin and fellow-artist Adrienne Gaha held one of the most memorable exhibitions at First Draft, Sydney titled 'The Crossing'. What may have appeared simply as a group of works which studied the landscape in and around the Blue Mountains, (where Gaha lived and Jubelin visited), these images 'were informed by feminist and post-modern theory'.
'The Stairway' is a wonderfully detailed petit point embroidery of three figures walking in the Cathedral chamber of the Jenolan Caves in New South Wales. The artist remembers the work was drawn from a nineteenth century painting she saw in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Surrounding the handwork by Jubelin is a 1920s Australiana pokerwork and stained frame she located in a Darlinghurst Antique shop.
As Wayne Tunnicliffe, Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales notes 'Her choice of a traditionally feminine and time-consuming craft to create small-scale images and her use of old, found frames carved by amateur woodworkers add a sense of vernacular history and suggest a valuing of the domestic and hobbyist over 'high art' traditions.' ('Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Art Collection', 2006, p.176)
Provenance
First Draft Gallery, 1987
Mori Gallery, 1989
Private collection, Sydney
Exhibited
'The Crossing' - with Adrienne Gaha, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 1987