Bite 5 by FP: The ‘strings attached’ both enable and restrain the individual. They portray the exploration of the everyday but changing family interactions and patterns facilitating the emergence of self, highlighting cultural values and the ties that bind, both in a spiritual and physical sense.

Wood, steel, wool, cotton 30cmL x 30cmW x 30cmH $2,000

Bite 5 by NN: There will be moments when the knotted threads that bind us to patriarchal forms of religion as well as authority dominated patterns of human relationships which have become constricting, destructive and suffocating, must be untangled and the status quo challenged. The Jewish rabbi Jesus of Nazareth has shown us how to do this by cultivating in our being a sense of compassion informed by a sense of doing justice. Personal encounters imbued with these qualities facilitate the emergence of self in those fortunate enough to gravitate within the orbit of a community or relationship grounded in these virtues.

Bite 4 by FP: Earl Stumpf, my Dad, saved each of his pay-packets from the first day he worked in the soul-destroying factory where he eventually spent 50 years. He gave all his money to his stepmom until he married.

Paper, tin, plexiglass 30cmL x 20cmW x 40cmH $5,000

Bite 4 by NN: Soul destroying factories are constructed with the bricks and mortar of injustice. When any human being survives such experiences, it is an indicator of resilience and a measure of how strong the human heart can be. Earl Stumpf was one such survivor. The nature of his working life has been preserved for posterity because he found a home in the memory of his daughter who loves him. This suggests belonging is more than a material or spatial concept. It cannot be limited to a notion of being ‘here’ or ‘there’. It is intangible yet powerful, suggesting that our very own sense of identity and being is composite. Indigenous peoples have retained this composite knowledge and wisdom which connects land and identity – rather than wage and identity. Their pay-packets were filled with tobacco, sugar and flour.

Bite 3 by FP: When people enter into a love relationship and hold each other’s heart, it is a dangerous situation. Both are vulnerable and can be hurt. Poor martyred St Sebastian did not die from his wounds. The same may be so for those affected by love.

Wool, fabric, wood 33cmL x 24cmW x 23cmH $3,600

Bite 3 by NN: Institutional forms of religion can be dangerous. History informs us that threats to the existence of institutional forms of religion are often eliminated, particularly when the integrity and reputation of an institution is called into question. Individuals may then be categorized as heretical, therefore burnt or shot through with the arrows of religious love. They may also be nailed to the expensive stake of complex legal processes and suffer verbal strangulation. Whenever religious institutions ‘close-up-shop’ as a form of self-preservation, victims are abandoned and no longer belong. The preservation of a ‘white-washed-tomb’ then becomes more important than the welfare of a wounded human heart.

Bite 2 by FP: A Tea Cozy insulates the heat of the brewing tea – sometimes all day – in some cultures. It would be beneficial to be able to isolate and insulate any love relationship against the cooling down which seems to occur all too often. Wool, fabric, cotton 16cmW x 16cmL x 28cmH $3,800

Bite 2 by NN: On some occasions Pink-Batts are needed as sound-proof insulation in order to protect the divine from being misrepresented and consumed by the heat generated within the hearts of passionate and dedicated human beings. Language is but one cosy and seductive means by which relationships are constructed, a means by which gender equality can be negated or obscured and a powerful tool by which once healthy and cozy relationships can mutate into suffocating experiences of intimidation and violence. It constantly needs deciphering so that relationships are infused with a healthy brew.

Bite 1 by FP: A holy mystery is suggested but rather than lifting the soul to heights of spirituality, this rug takes the soul down into the everyday and the depths of selfhood as a place to find the divine.
Denim, embroidered fabric, LCD lighting
30cmL x 30cmW x 30cmH $4,000
Bite 1 by NN: The depths of the self as a place to find the divine may be an illusion when the self is in complete darkness. When this happens to those who suffer and have been thrown out into the cold, a lament becomes more appropriate rather than a song of joy. Thankfully, the Jewish religious tradition has left us a treasury of such ‘bite-sized theologies’ in the Psalms of Lament. What happens when the divine batters us, covering us with darkness, leaving us living amongst a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs and inhabited by owls? (Psalm 44:19)