Dwell
Exhibition | Dwell
Artist | Suzanne Knight
Dates | 30 July – 12 September 2026
Opening | Thursday 30 July. Opening from 6pm and Official Speeches from 6:30pm | RSVP here
Exhibition Statement
Dwell presents a series of tapestry weavings by Suzanne Knight exploring the intertwined histories of migration, settlement and ecological change. Shaped as discarded plastic bottles, the works consider how introduced plants, materials and settler traditions have become embedded within Australian landscapes.
Woven from raw-spun and repurposed wool, the tapestries are naturally dyed using pigments extracted from invasive weeds including ivy, St John’s wort, hawthorn, briar rose, mullein, dandelion and thistle. Introduced to recreate familiar European landscapes, these plants become both subject and material. Other works draw on the native vegetation of the Murrumbidgee River corridor, recalling ecologies transformed by pastoral settlement and the sheep industry.
Recurring tartan patterns reference Scottish textile traditions, migration and the colonial wool economy, while garden gates suggest thresholds between cultivated and wild spaces. The bottle forms evoke contemporary still life, reflecting on consumption, containment and the enduring presence of plastic.
Through material, colour and form, Dwell invites reflection on the ecological and cultural legacies of colonisation and the plants, objects and traditions that now shape contemporary Australia.
Artist Statement
Over the past decade, I have developed contemporary tapestry weaving as my primary art practice alongside natural dyeing, painting, drawing and printmaking. My work investigates the relationships between ecology, migration, consumerism and cultural inheritance, exploring how natural and human-made environments shape one another. Through recurring themes of movement, containment and transformation, I consider the interconnected histories of landscape, domestic life and environmental change.
My process begins with gouache studies that guide the choice of yarn colours in the weaving. Working primarily with raw-spun and repurposed donated wool, and fibres dyed with colours extracted from locally available invasive and native plants, the tapestries are embedded with the physical presence of place and community.
My work often reimagines familiar domestic objects and materials. Still life objects appear as shaped tapestries, often arranged on supermarket-like shelves, addressing issues of consumerism, waste, single-use plastics, landfill, and climate change. Places of interest include pastoral landscapes, ocean migrations, rivers and gardens as sites of connection, carrying plastics, people, birds and plants across landscapes and between ecosystems. These movements reveal the complex ways materials, histories and ecological systems become entangled over time.
Rather than presenting fixed distinctions between nature and culture, or between the domestic and the wild, I am interested in the spaces in between, where these boundaries become blurred and seep into each other. Through weaving, I seek to create contemplative works that invite reflection on our relationship with the environments we inhabit, the histories we inherit, and the traces we leave behind.
Artist Biography
Suzanne Knight is a Canberrabased artist living and working on Ngunawal/Ngambri Country. Drawing forms the foundation of her multidisciplinary practice, which encompasses tapestry weaving, natural dyeing, printmaking and painting. Through these mediums, she explores the relationships between landscape, ecology, migration and settlement, often drawing on local histories and the material qualities of natural fibres and pigments.
Knight completed undergraduate and postgraduate research degrees at the Australia National University School of Art and Design in 1992 and 1996. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the London Art Fair and Collect Art Fair, London (2023). Recent achievements include selection for the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize (2026), the Wollongong Art Prize (2025), and finalist selections in the Still National Still Life Award (2019, 2023 and 2025). She has undertaken artist residencies in Darwin, Mount Wilson and Japan through Asialink
Alongside her studio practice, Knight has worked as a community artist, master printmaker, educator and arts administrator, including roles with Northern Editions, Charles Darwin University and the Australian National University. Following a long career in the arts and higher education sectors, she now works as a full-time artist.
