Congratulations to Jemima Wyman, winner of the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2025, for her work Haze 19, 2024, a custom-printed Chiffon curtain spanning over six metres in length – part of a series of ‘Haze’ curtains which, according to the artist, function as ideological textiles. Coined by Wyman, this is a term for textiles that carry political ideas in their fibres, like Soviet-era propaganda textiles, war rugs, military camouflage and protest attire. At the same time, they’re decorative, deceptive and tactical devices for conflict.
Jemima Wyman, Haze 19, 2024, (unabridged title 5074 words see www.jemimawyman.com/titles), custom-printed Chiffon (100% polyester with 100% polyester thread), 401 x 629.9cm
Haze 19 is derived from Wyman’s hand-cut photographic ‘Haze’ collages, which weave together smoke clouds that occur during global protests. According to the artist, “the titles for each work in the ‘Haze’ series list archival details about each individual piece of smoke: the colour, protest, place and date. For Haze 19, the unabridged title is 5074 words long.”
While the artist considers protest smoke as a cloud to be contemplated, she also notes: “It’s a warning sign of past, present and future discontent, yet also an empowering reminder of collective resilience and hope for change, illuminating the biosphere we inhabit today.”
Wyman is a Palawa artist living and working between Australia and Los Angeles. Her practice explores patterns, masking, and camouflage as visual strategies of resistance and tools for negotiating identity.
Jemima Wyman, Haze 19 (detail), 2024, custom-printed Chiffon (100% polyester with 100% polyester thread), 401 x 629.9cm
Judging the $40,000 acquisitive award this year was Dr Blair French, an accomplished arts leader, curator and writer originally from Aotearoa New Zealand and current CEO of the Murray Arts Museum Albury. In choosing the winner, French noted:
“Jemima Wyman’s Haze 19, 2024, is an immediately arresting work, an explosion of colour and pattern billowing across the gallery space. Created from hand-collaged photographic work then printed onto chiffon drops creating a large, free-hanging curtain, Haze 19 is a visual accumulation of clouds of smoke generated at protests around the globe – political protests, social justice protests, human rights protests, environmental protests. The work conveys the fury, the energy and the interconnectedness of the contemporary world through a form with associations to various histories of textile print – fashion (clothing as both display and disguise), interior design, public proclamation. Simultaneously seductive and subversive Haze 19 is a standout work within an exhibition of outstanding contemporary textile art.”
Elisa Jane Carmichael, Mirrigimpa, 2024, Talwalpin, fish scales, eco dyed cotton fabric and thread, glass bottle, hydrosol scent, driftwood, wire, 650 x 160 x 50cm
The Highly Commended Ruth Amery Award of $2,500 was awarded to Elisa Jane Carmichael for her work Mirrigimpa, 2024.
The 2025 finalists, selected from over 430 entries Australia-wide, are contemporary artists who demonstrate a mastery of technique in a broad textile medium as well as innovation and excellence alongside a rigorous and robust conceptual practice. Finalists include Helvi Apted (VIC), Elisa Jane Carmichael (QLD), Hannah Cooper (NSW), Charlotte Haywood (NSW), Cara Johnson (VIC), Charles Levi (NSW), Emily Simek (VIC), Jacqueline Stojanovic (VIC), Sera Waters (SA), and Jemima Wyman (NSW/USA).
The Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2025 finalist exhibition is on show at Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria, from 24 May to 17 August 2025.
