The unstretched paintings record their own history as they are adapted to different contexts and uses over time. Traces of previous activities may be visible such as the removal or application of straps including traces of unpicked labels and appliquéd patches and the redaction of text with paint.

The gradual accretion of marks accompanies a process of dematerialization, wear, destruction and repair. The ghosts of past actions remain in the works material presence. Formalist imperatives grapple with function and the inoperative.

Thematically the tapestry canvasses are a free, loose field of my art activity where I always begin, whilst travelling, without knowing quite what I will do. Those aforementioned formalist imperatives wrestle with enduring obsessions – mounded forms and rectilinear glyphs. Colours and quantities of materials at-hand dictate pattern ratios and shapes in the stitched surfaces. Cryptically woven throughout are ‘signatures’ - my names including Blotchwoman, dates, and rising waters.

A transitional phase in art practice is visible amongst this group. Essays on the back of some of the panels expand my ideas around Sophie Taeuber Arp’s 1926 designs for L’Aubette and her lost architecture.  There are modern pools floating in the absence of ‘my architect’. Increasing ‘Queer Weathers’ are referenced reflecting our current times and future atmospheric extremes. - Sarah Crowest

Sarah CrowEST works across discipline boundaries of contemporary art, design and craft to encompass diagrammatic scores and performance. Her recent output occupies a conceptual space between painting, working apparel and the graphic qualities of text. Sound and architectural forms are recurring backbeats that underpin the direction of crowEST’s diverse output over several decades.

CrowEST lives and works in Melbourne and London. Random high points include: Melbourne NOW commission, 2023, Billilla Mansion residency 2022, Gertrude Contemporary Studio residency from 2013-2016, awarded a PhD by University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts in 2013, recipient of the Samstag International Scholarship to spend 2008/9 in Lisbon, Portugal at Escola MAUMAUS in the independent study program.

CrowEST has exhibited on a number of occasions at Gallery 9 and is represented by LON Gallery, Melbourne