Maria’s Japanese textile mastery comes to Docklands

Textile artist Maria Cook is excited to showcase her latest work in an upcoming exhibition at Magnet Galleries Melbourne in Docklands which also celebrates International Women’s Day.

Maria has a love of using Japanese textiles to craft new, expressive works ranging from large wall pieces to intricate textile pictures.

“I am smitten with indigo but also have explored whites and taupes and occasionally silks for the lustre they can contribute,” she said.

Working with these materials, I layer and patch fragments together, combining them with machine and hand stitching – a slow and thoughtful creative process.

Maria, from Ballarat, said she would display four large pieces and six very small pieces at Magnet Galleries at the District Docklands from February 1 to 24, with the theme centred around “journeys”.

The exhibition is being displayed early ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.

“I feel everything about my art is represented in this notion: fabric that has been transported around the world and in my small pictorial pieces the journeys women are forced to make.” •

In recent years Maria has developed an interest in Japanese textiles, collecting cotton kimonos and futon covers which were relatively inexpensive.

“I would unpick them and launder the pieces and then use the fabric to make new pieces, large wall pieces and small fabric pictures,” she said.

But recently she said the cost of the fabric had gone up meaning she had to curtail her collection.

“In my work I have tried to develop pieces from within the limits of my fabric collection. I have made pieces which are almost monochromatic, such as only blues or only whites.”

“This has challenged me to extract contrast and pattern and texture from within a very limited range of colour.”

Her work has been shown in solo and private collections both in Australia and overseas.

Caption: Maria Cook with her textile pieces. Hanna Komissarova.