By Tyler Wright
Quilting emerged as an art form for Belgrave local Natasja van Wyk during the state’s lockdown period.
“I call it ‘Rage Quilting’, when I realise I’m on the verge of a panic attack, it is my escape is going into my quilting, my sewing room and just creating,” Natasja said.
“I do quilting, but without the geometric straight lines, so you’ll find that none of my quilts have any straight lines because I try to rebel against the quilt police.”
Natasja has been quilting as a hobby since 2012, but recently decided she wanted to express that visual art could also be textile art.
“I went to a quilt show last year, I did volunteer duty there and I actually heard some of the older quilters say, ‘oh, you can’t do that because that wasn’t done with proper cotton’, and that saddened me because I know that the quilting community wants younger people to get involved, but you’re never going to have that if you make it unobtainable by younger people.”
From then on, Natasja started creating landscape artworks and distorting the images into abstract realities.
It was these landscape works that got Natasja noticed by Burrinja Cultural Centre; where she was sponsored for three months to operate a pop up space at Burrinja’s Aerie studios throughout Burrinja’s 2023 Open Studios program.
“When I got into Open Studios, I was very ambitious, and I decided ‘let me do something completely out of my comfort zone,’ and I learned how to make wire sculptures, because otherwise life is too easy,” Natasja said.
“I wire sculpted wings. For the very first time in my life, I actually learned how to solder.
“With a hope and a prayer, I started sewing around and quilting around these wings, and wonder by wonder, they actually went up.”
Despite the creative “roller coaster,” Natasja said it has been “truly amazing” seeing the finished work and the smiles on viewer’s faces.
“I’ve got a lot of people coming into Burrinja just to take a photo in front of the colourful wings that I’ve made, ” she said.
Collecting most of her textiles from local op shops – including the Kilsyth op shop ‘trifecta’ – Natasja said her work is “very colourful”.
“I have severe PTSD. I used to live in South Africa and I used to be an attorney there, so it helps me to have a form of meditation and that keeps my panic attacks at bay,” she said.
She also said she feels quilting should get a younger audience.
“It’s an extremely expensive hobby… if you have to have a $4,000 sewing machine, that’s a completely different ball game. You don’t need that; you can buy a sewing machine from an op shop, and anybody can quilt,” she said.
“Don’t let the rules of quilting stop you. Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s not good enough, because it’s most definitely good enough.”
You can see Natasja’s sculptured wings at the Dandenong Ranges Open Studios Group Exhibition named ‘Transcend,’ which will run until 13 May at the Burrinja Gallery.
