Impact
Regina Wilson
Regina Wilson
We have loved collaborating with renowned indigenous artist Regina Wilson to create an exclusive fabric range. The fabric designs are based on Regina Wilson‘s intricate linear paintings depicting her weaving.
Regina is a skilled weaver using an extensive array of weaving and stitching designs, taught to her by her maternal grandmother. Her paintings were some of the first in indigenous art to represent the craft of weaving as contemporary art.
Regina, a Ngan’gikurrungurr woman, was born in 1948 in the Daly River region of the Northern Territory. Together with her husband, Harold Wilson, Regina founded the Peppimenarti (meaning ‘large rock’) Community as a permanent settlement for the Ngan’gikurrungurr people in the Daly River region, south west of Darwin in 1973. The location of the community is an important dreaming site for the Ngangikurrungurr language group and is situated amid wetlands and floodplains at the centre of the Daly River Aboriginal Reserve, 250 kilometres south-west of Darwin.
We are very privileged to be working with Regina who is a Telstra Award winner (2003) and has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Musee Du Montparnasse in Paris and the British Museum. Her works are in collections in The British Museum, National Gallery of Victoria and Art Gallery of NSW as well as many private collections in Australia and Internationally.
This partnership is a direct result from our previous collaboration with the Elcho Island artists, see here. The success of this project prompted Regina to agree to the development and production of textiles based on her paintings.
“I saw those lights from Elcho Island, and they were really good. Sasha from Koskela asked us if we wanted to do fabric design. My paintings would make good fabric design. For the Ngan’gikurunggurr durrmu means designs – designs that can be anywhere. We used to do drawing on the ground. We do them on the body too.
— Regina Wilson
Regina has created three specific designs, wargardi (dilly bag), syaw (fish net), ngan’gi (message sticks) that were developed into a dynamic, contemporary line printed on linen and silks. The fabric has been produced into two beautiful collections of textiles including cushions, scarves and throws, which are available exclusively through Koskela.
