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Deborah Burdett

Annette the Marionette

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Found textiles with slow stitching. First produced for the Pollys Puppet Project as part of Arterie - Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, 2019

Annette is a life size, soft sculpture marionette. Annette is an example of ‘slow stitching’ a global movement of irregular, loose stitching styles – often used in radical textile practices.
Annette has a not uncommon back story for a middle aged Australian woman. She like over 400,000 women is now homeless having fled domestic violence. Annette is represented as a marionette – a puppet. The puppet master might have been her abusive husband, her needy and now absent children, her misogynist boss or society itself.

I am a mature aged graduate in ceramics from the National Art School. I cofounded and ran the Arterie programme at Cancer Hospital Chris O'Brien Lifehouse. This immersion into patient care and art led me to develop my own textile practice - or as I often refer to it - "Craft as Comfort". My earlier background with a Masters of Social Science combined with my interest in the arts health arena, strengthened my belief in the powerful, positive effect of community art. The practice of slow stitching suits both my demeanour and my interest in found objects, recycled materials and the wabi-sabi nature of life.