The materialisation of testament: an embroidered response to narratives of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia

Abstract

My research, employing textile-based art as its creative footing, has responded to the primary research question: can an artistic response to royal commission outcomes, drawing on the logic of a reparative aesthetic, facilitate continuing conversations around issues of social injustice? Supplementary questions further examine textile art and the positioning of beauty as a strategy, by asking: how do the characteristics of textile art, primarily embroidery, support the artistic response; and are there indications that the deployment of beauty in socio-political art stimulates interest in the underlying subject matter?
Royal Commissions are increasingly seen as a powerful forum for ‘truth-telling’, providing an important public mechanism for the examination of difficult issues. Using the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2012-2017) as my foundation, I have addressed this research through the creation of an exhibition scale body of embroidery-centred textile works. While these draw significantly on the details of Royal Commission reports and survivor narratives, I have sought to re-imagine the Catholic Church’s response by asking what it might look like if the Church (and not its victims) wore the shame of child sexual abuse – the question anchoring my creative intention. My focus on the Catholic Church recognises the extent of the problem within this organisation, attracting as it did, more than 60 per cent of the allegations of abuse in a religious institution and comprising around 37 per cent of the number of survivors who spoke in private sessions with Commissioners.
Using a constructivist methodology, my practice-based research approach draws on an understanding of the reparative aesthetic presented by art historian and academic Susan Best, expanding the discourse to include textile-based artworks. It also seeks to examine the position of the artist as a witness to others’ trauma, and considers the use of beauty as a legitimate strategy or entry-point into violent, shameful and difficult topics.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Supervisor	Bethaney TURNER (Supervisor) & Jen WEBB (Supervisor)