‘THE OBJECT SHOW’
We’re thrilled to officially share that we’ve been invited by RAINBOW STUDIOS to be part of ‘THE OBJECT SHOW’, presented by ARTS-MATTER during Sydney Contemporary week this September. Taking over The EVE Hotel, ‘THE OBJECT SHOW’ sees six curators transform six guest rooms into immersive worlds of furniture, lighting, textiles and objects.
We’ll be joining RAINBOW STUDIOS in the INTERIORS room, alongside 15 other artists presenting 40 imagined objects created especially for the show.
For some time, we’ve been curious about what our practice could look like beyond the wall. What happens when weaving moves into furniture, sculpture and function, while still carrying the materiality and hand of our work?
‘THE OBJECT SHOW’ gave us the opportunity to find out.
It’s given us a reason to dig into ideas that have been brewing in the studio for years and finally give them form. Because sometimes, all you need is a little curiosity and a hard deadline to make the thing you’ve been dreaming about.
The INTERIORS room explores the personality of the objects we live with. The things we find, inherit, collect or stumble upon. Objects that feel perfectly at home in one setting and wonderfully out of place in another. A collision of colour, texture, form, and story that captures the beautiful mismatch of a lived-in home.
And now, a few NEW Crossing Threads objects are about to find their place among them.
'REEDLESS CURTAIN'
Handwoven through the Japanese philosophy of SAORI free-weaving, the ‘REEDLESS CURTAIN’ by Crossing Threads explores the space between structure and surrender.
By removing the reed, the tool traditionally used to keep warp threads neatly in formation, the fibres are given permission to shift, separate and converge across the loom. Guided by the hand, but never entirely controlled by it, each thread finds its own path, forming an organic rhythm of linework, openings and flowing channels that could never be predetermined or replicated by machine.
Suspended together, the panels become a woven veil, sitting somewhere between textile, sculpture and spatial object. Their open structure gently filters light while preserving a connection to what lies beyond, creating a sense of separation without enclosure. As daylight moves through the work, its expression continually shifts through shadow, transparency and movement.
Handwoven from GOTS-certified Egyptian cotton and Fair Trade hemp, the work celebrates the inherent character and intelligence of natural fibre. Rather than forcing the material into uniformity, the artists allow it to lead, embracing irregularity as part of the composition and creating a work that feels instinctive, tactile and alive.
'THE VESTIGE CHAIR'
Derived from the Latin vestigium, meaning a trace, footprint or mark left behind, ‘VESTIGE CHAIR’ explores the beauty and possibility held within what remains. Breathing new life into the discarded and overlooked, Crossing Threads reimagines a vintage chrome cantilever chair in the style of Gastone Rinaldi through the artists’ distinctly material-led and tactile approach. The original frame carries traces of another design era, while its new surface is built from remnants of contemporary industry.
Working in partnership with one of Australia’s leading commercial upholstery suppliers, Instyle, local upholstery artisans and reuse co-ops, the artists curated a selection of discontinued leather samples and industry offcuts that may otherwise have gone to waste. Each fragment bears its own markings, patina and irregularities, small traces of where the material has been and what it once was.
Cut by hand into fine strips and meticulously applied to the chair, the leather forms a richly tactile, almost shaggy surface that sits somewhere between furniture, textile, and functional art. What begins as something residual becomes abundant. The offcut is no longer peripheral to the object, but becomes the very thing that gives it new life.
Playful, curious and deeply tactile, ‘VESTIGE CHAIR’ reflects Crossing Threads’ ongoing fascination with texture, transformation and the stories held within materials. It is an invitation to look again at what is left behind, and to consider the beauty that can emerge when something overlooked is given the space to become something new.
'AZURE ART CUSHION'
Sitting at the intersection of textile, sculpture and functional object, the Crossing Threads ‘AZURE ART CUSHION’ reimagines the cushion as a collectible work of art.
At its centre is a one-of-a-kind textile handwoven through the Japanese philosophy of SAORI free-weaving, embracing spontaneity, irregularity and the intuitive hand of the weaver. Each composition is shaped by the natural rhythm of fibre, creating a surface that could never be precisely repeated.
‘AZURE’ moves through the work in vivid accents, from subtle blue threads embedded within the woven surface to the exaggerated ultramarine-blue fringe that frames its edges. Paired with a tactile salmon pink bouclé reverse, the unexpected interplay of colour, texture and scale transforms its soft silhouette into something playful and sculptural.
Considered from every angle, the Crossing Threads ART CUSHION is finished with an invisible zip, branded Crossing Threads pip tag and a 100% feather insert, giving the object its generous, plump form.
More than a soft furnishing, each Crossing Threads ART CUSHION brings weaving beyond the wall and into the living space, inviting art to be touched, held and lived with.
'LIMINAL SCULPTURAL FRAME'
‘LIMINAL’ by Crossing Threads explores the space between textile and object, transforming a traditionally soft, flat-woven surface into something sculptural, dimensional, and alive.
Handwoven through the Japanese philosophy of SAORI free-weaving, lengths of reedless textile are folded, gathered and compressed within a deep stained walnut frame. Softness meets structure as the textile pushes forward, recedes, and folds back upon itself, with the frame acting as both a boundary and a vessel.
Periwinkle holds the work in a liminal state, a colour belonging neither entirely to day nor night, but to the fleeting moments between an ending and a beginning. Open warp channels reveal glimpses of what lies beneath, while denser passages disappear into folds and shadow.
No longer simply woven cloth, ‘LIMINAL’ becomes volume, surface and object, occupying the threshold between weaving and sculpture.
For all enquiries on these featured “objects”, please email jade@rainbowstudios.com.au and/or shop the pieces below.