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Unfolding Out

Boni Cairncross, Unfolding Out 2024, installation view at Jennings Kerr Gallery. Image: Ashley Mackevicius.


Boni Cairncross, Breathing in, 2024, detail, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed). Image: Jessica Maurer.

Unfolding Out is a body of work that explores performative actions through embroidery. The series began with a simple set of instructions to be performed in dialogue with the sewing machine. The distances between lines of stitching, the changing of the thread, and the volume of embroidery are all determined by the performance of sewing to these pre-determined rules. Each piece in the series directly informs the next, building on and diverging from each other as colours run out and new colours are slowly introduced working from a ‘found’ colour palette of vintage cotton thread. The rhythm and pace of the machine operate in conversation with the focus and attention of the artist, both informing the embroidery, which becomes a kind of document of this task-based action.

Unfolding Out was exhibited at Jennings Kerr in May 2024. Read the catalogue essay, written by James Kerr.


Boni Cairncross, Unfolding Out 2024, installation view at Jennings Kerr Gallery. Image: Ashley Mackevicius.

Boni Cairncross, Mechanised chorus, 2024, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed). Image: Jessica Maurer.

Boni Cairncross, Pacing amid orange and pink, 2024, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed). Image: Jessica Maurer.

Boni Cairncross, Unfolding Out 2024, installation view at Jennings Kerr Gallery. Image: Ashley Mackevicius.

Boni Cairncross, Breathing out, 2024, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed), Image: Jessica Maurer.

Boni Cairncross, Lavender beginnings, 2024, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed), Image: Jessica Maurer.

Boni Cairncross, Quiet moments, blue slate, 2024, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed), Image: Jessica Maurer.

Boni Cairncross, Stretching, slowly, 2024, cotton thread, 52 x 42 cm (framed), Image: Jessica Maurer.