Karen Stone: Rearranged: Art of the flower

​Wollongong, NSW b. 1957

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Roses on teacups…raspberry ripple cream biscuits 2018
 

"That candy pink fibre's a b****! Bit harsh. Maybe she's just misunderstood?" 2018
Cotton and linen fibre

 

"Oh dear," the pale pink rose sighed, then tightly squinched her petals so she could better concentrate. "It's so very hard to remember exactly what colour I'm supposed to be! Green today? Grey tomorrow?" 2019
 

Blue roses…the paralysis of perfection 2018    
 

Yellow expectations…"This is m'daughta, she won't do what she oughta" 2020
 

Falling into hope 2021
 

Cotton and linen fibre

Museum of Brisbane Collection

Courtesy the artist

Karen Stone is a Brisbane-based artist who creates large-scale 'paper-arabesques' inspired by floral patterns found in the home. She explores 'home' as both a physical place and emotional concept, drawing on her personal experiences as a single, older and non-homeowning Australian woman.

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Karen has always been delighted by flowers. In the homes of her childhood, she was surrounded by floral patterns – on curtains, wallpapers, carpets, couches and tea towels. In these spaces, she recalls her mother and grandmother performing 'home duties', enacting the model of femininity expected of them. As Karen grew up and rejected the societal norms laid out for her, she continued to collect floral fabrics in the spaces she rented. In her paper-arabesques, Karen employs floral motifs to explore her relationship to 'home' as a space that is both comforting and nurturing, but also saturated with patriarchal values.

 

Karen's process begins with the sourcing of second-hand cotton and linen clothes. She tears apart the garments then processes the fragments in a Hollander beater, grinding them into a pulp. 
Depending on what fabrics and original dying processes are used, the colour of the pulp will vary. Her pulps are transferred into squeeze bottles, which she uses to 'paint' the coloured medium onto a four-by-two-metre silkscreen. As she applies different coloured pulps onto the screen, layers build up. Over time, the pulp fibres bind together to create a single sheet, which Karen carefully peels off the screen once dry.

 

Karen's paper-arabesques have been arranged to evoke the rooms of a house. They captivate you as you move around them, enveloping you through sheer scale. For Karen, the experience recalls hiding behind her grandmother's floral-patterned couch as a child, imagining the flowers come to life. Here, the flowers accompany Karen as she reclaims 'home' as a place free of patriarchal expectations. 

EASY READ

Ever since she was a child, Karen Stone has lived in homes decorated with floral patterns – on cushions and couches, aprons and tea towels. Here, she has translated different floral patterns into large sheets of paper made from second-hand clothes. Karen uses flowers as a symbol to explore what home means to her – what does home mean to you?

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Exhibition Theme Text
Flowers are one of the most delightful aspects of our lives. They soften and brighten the spaces we occupy and colour how we think and feel. From a bespoke arrangement in the home to a cascade of blooms overtaking the yard, season to season, we are surrounded by flowers. These natural wonders are an aesthetic pleasure, but also a powerful conduit for storytelling and knowledge sharing. For millennia, they have carried significance and meaning across cultures. Here, flowers have long been cared for by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, understood as an integral part of Country, and continue to thrive amidst the environmental impacts of colonisation.  
Many artists are powerfully attracted to flowers. Perhaps most often associated with domestic settings and still life compositions, flowers continue to be reimagined to explore contemporary concerns. Brisbane has a strong culture of artists using floral imagery to evoke stories of this place.  
Rearranged: Art of the Flower will immerse you in the work of more than 20 artists enchanted by flowers and personally connected to Brisbane. You are invited into a space recalling the sanctuary of a quintessential Queenslander house. Airy and open, Queenslanders blur the distinction between outside and inside, enriching our interaction with the rampant organic world. Through lush paintings, textiles, sculptures, ceramics and new media, notions of place and memory, history, beauty and fragility will be explored. Rearranged will take you on a journey through the home, out the back and into the garden – all the while revelling in the brilliant blooms of Brisbane.  

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