An exhibition by RMIT University’s research group Material Assembly (MatA)
This was a powerful exhibition holding space for a wide variety of works that responded to personal and global experiences.
I was particularly drawn to Simon Crosbie’s Mother with stillborn child, mainly because of the materials used and the emotive description of the work: “How do I talk about the sister I never had?” The main part of the work consisted of an apple green knitted jumper with very long arms. These arms seemed to be wrapped around a pile of skin-toned smaller garments. I tried to imagine myself in the place of the artist or wearing the jumper. How would it feel to hold this small but precious bundle?
I felt the depth of the work in my belly - my diaphragm - my chest, once again reinforcing how trauma finds its place in the body and manifests in different ways. My emerging understanding is that it’s being aware of what trauma is doing that enables us to begin to heal from it.
This work, and others, made me think differently about what materials can communicate, and how I might use them to express what trauma feels like in the body, rather than simply represent it.
Simon Crosbie, Mother with stillborn child, 2026, Mixed Media
Simon Crosbie, Mother with stillborn child, detail, 2026, Mixed Media