By Necessity
Curated by Meredith Turnbull
John Brooks
Andrea Eckersley
Jacqueline Greenbank
Leah Muddle
Dell Stewart
Meredith Turnbull
Mashara Wachjudy
2 May - 30 May 2026
Opening 2-4pm Saturday 2 May
By Necessity is a group project featuring artists who engage with textiles in diverse ways. It examines how the gestures of making are guided by principles of necessity including: a direct relationship to the body and the body in space; with humour, memory and politics through image making; and through compulsion, repurposing, world building and ideas of sustainability. By Necessity examines how visual art/craft and design-based practices utilise the idea of necessity to drive and sustain practice.
By Necessity features John Brooks, Andrea Eckersley, Jacqueline Greenbank, Leah Muddle, Dell Stewart, Meredith Turnbull and Mashara Wachjudy and focuses on six innovative Australian-made (and one artist from Aotearoa) textile-based projects. This project responds directly to the Design Week 2026 themes of making for Design Futures including visual art/craft textiles as restorative social projects and circularity examining sustainable and circular ways of working and utilising materials.
John Brooks, Swamp Cabbage (process), 2024-25, silk, opaque print, polyester, puff paste, clay, cotton, wool, acrylic, wool, plastic, lurex, hi vis thread. Image courtesy the artist and Alta Forma.
Melbourne Design Week Workshop
John Brooks: The Smartphone Meets its Ancestor
Saturday, 23 May, 1 - 3pm
Basic handloom weaving relies on horizontal (weft) threads intersecting with vertical (warp) threads. Through a series of sliding door moments of invention and iteration, the weaving loom evolved into the computer, which lead us to the smart phone. Participants will be guided through a basic weaving exercise to create a small piece of fabric, using textile waste and returning their smartphones to their original function as a tool for weaving.
Free workshop, 2 hours, BYO phone, all materials provided, bookings essential.
