A Woman’s place is in the House… or is it? : The Women’s Suffrage Centenary Tapestries

In 1994 the South Australian Parliament commissioned two tapestries celebrating the role of the South Australian Parliament in granting women the vote in 1894, and, during the twentieth century, passing a raft of other legislation that gave women equality before the law. The tapestries were designed by Kay Lawrence and woven in public by a group of community weavers led by Elaine Gardner and Lucia Pichler. The public, invited to ‘weave a pass’ as the tapestries were being made, responded enthusiastically, with hundreds of people participating in the project.  While commissioned for the House of Assembly Chamber of the South Australian Parliament by a bi-partisan group of women politicians, on two subsequent occasions, some members of Parliament have recommended their removal, a recommendation later withdrawn in the face of public outcry.  This lecture will discuss how the making of the tapestries inserted women’s culture and voices into the Parliament, and consider how it is that a pair of craft objects could generate such parliamentary anxiety as well as a sense of public ownership.

Kay Lawrence AM is one of Australia’s most distinguished textile practitioners. She has an international profile as a tapestry weaver and has completed a number of major commissions for public spaces in Australia and overseas. Her work is held in many public collections. Over her long career, she has engaged with gender issues in contemporary visual arts and craft, and she has made a substantial contribution to the development of craft theory in Australia through her teaching, writing and practice.  In 2002 a monograph on her work was published by Telos Press in the UK.  Her writing on contemporary textile practice has been published in catalogues, scholarly journals and edited books.  In her most recent community based project Your heart’s desire she uses simple textile processes to engage people in thinking about the rituals and meanings of everyday life. Kay is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of Art Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia.