#maggie hensel-brown

[eucanthos]

Maggie Hensel-Brown (Australia, 1990)

Zoom, 2021. Lace size est. 18 x 12 cm (no info). Needle lace techniques [approx 1h/sq cm]

https://www.maggiehenselbrown.com/zoom

[fornogoodreason]

Maggie Hensel Brown, Pink Rinse

[mybeingthere]

I first learned about Maggie Hensel-Brown, Sydney-based artist, this morning, on Aarne Anton's Misfits page. Her lace work is amazing - original, beautifully designed and made, turning the grannies' art into something contemporary and radical.

I wanted to know more - here are some links for those who want to dig deeper.

Maggie tells: "I was raised with five brothers and I think I needed something that was very specifically mine. I have a very vivid memory of teaching myself how to knit with skewers and some twine. It’s been a real lifelong obsession.

The very first class I did was in Melbourne, in 2015, when I learned a needle-lace technique called reticella. I’ve always been someone who likes to go more and more intricate and detailed. Reticella is an Italian technique, developed in the 15th century. You take a piece of existing fabric, usually linen or silk, then you count the threads within the piece of fabric, and you individually remove some and keep others in. Then you weave your own threads back in, in these really intricate painstaking mathematical patterns.

It was my first introduction into the lace world, too. The lace world is nuts—it’s this weird underground, all run in funny little guilds. I mean, it’s thousands of people: they travel for lace, they make friends over lace. These are some of the most well-researched incredible people that you could imagine, but all outside of any institution...

When I went on a research trip to England and Italy in 2016, I was quite disillusioned with the combination of capitalism and art. At the time I was living off art—I was running this little gallery—and I didn’t like the feeling of, “My rent’s due, I have to make something and sell it really quickly”. I wanted to give my practice the gift of not having to pay my bills."

Continue

maggie-hensel-brown-on-lace-labour-and-female-rage/

[speechnight]

SPEECHNIGHT XXV 

Thursday 12th January @ The Royal Exchange / 7:30 / $5  John Mackenzie: Why Cagefighting is the High Art of Our Time" Maggie Hensel-Brown: "The Life Changing Magic of a Stupidly Repetitive Task" Rebecca Stuart: "My Little Pony"