The works in Domestic Bliss (showing in NCCA’s Screenroom) are made by emerging artists and first-time collaborators Liz Grylls and Nadine Lee. Each work uses the humble tea towel as the starting point to express more than the notion of ‘Stay Calm and Keep Drying’. As a common household item, the tea towel features in this exhibition as both a canvas and an analogy for home life. Both Liz and Nadine have a number of identities including artist, parent, partner, cultural representative. It is often easy to compartmentalise each identity, however Domestic Bliss seeks to highlight that regardless of what identity an individual may have or be assumed to have, they also have ideas and thoughts that are far greater than one single identity.
Liz enjoys working in a range of mediums and has used tea towels previously for works combining printed images and embroidered text, sometimes without any apparent correlation. In comparison, the embroidered text in Nadine’s tea towels raises direct questions based on the tea towel’s use and the users themselves; for example, as symbols of forced domestic help, collectables, or as pieces of art.
Both Liz and Nadine live and work in Darwin. They have both completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Industries (Fine Arts/Visual Arts) from Charles Darwin University. Liz has completed Honours in Creative Arts and Industries (Fine Arts) at CDU while Nadine is currently completing an Honours degree (Visual Art) at CDU. Nadine has previously shown work in NCCA’s Boxset (2015).