Ana Peditis - Tenfold Textile Collective - studio visit November 2019

Ana Petidis is just one of the artists that make up the Tenfold Textile Collective. There are two members of the Collective living and working in Ballarat, Ana Petidis and Gemma Olsen. The other eight artists and members are distributed around regional Victoria and Melbourne. The group connect together over Skype and social media and then meet-up to exhibit in various locations. With a home and studio in Mount Helen, just outside the Ballarat CBD, Ana relocated from Melbourne and commutes to Geelong where she works at a textile weaving factory by day and works on her arts practice in textile in her studio in Ballarat. Arts and Culture Ballarat asked Ana a few questions about her weaving practice and how working in a collective changes the way she makes.

 How would you describe yourself and your practice?

I am a studio weaver based on the unceded lands of the Wadawarrung. I studied textiles at RMIT after a career working in community services. My practice is process driven and often concerned with human ecology. I hand weave and tell stories reflecting on human relationships in western contemporary life. I embrace material explorations, colour and technical capability to create considered woven and textile artefacts. As well as exhibiting my creations regularly, I work in a textile mill, teach multi shaft weaving and take private commissions for woven textiles.

 How did your collective come together?

Tenfold Textile Collective came about during 2016. A group of ten of us were finishing up a night course in textile design that we had been immersed in for 3 years. We wanted to keep our conversations and practices going in a similar way we had grown accustomed to during our time studying together. We also wanted the opportunity to show our work and share the richness of textile practices with a broader audience. It was not lost on any of us that collectively we had more of a chance as a group of women emerging into a vibrant creative arts scene than as individuals’ hustling along independently to find a voice.

 How has working in a collective changed your arts practice?

Working in a collective has provided me with enormous support and confidence. Not only am I part of a community of textile makers where we regularly share and reflect back our process but also I can share and contribute to the labour and costs of applying for and preparing for exhibitions. I have learnt from our shared experiences of putting together exhibitions to go on and hold my first solo show. I have gained insights into building websites, applying for awards and residencies and hosting workshops. If I’m having wonky thoughts about an idea or process I can reach out and know that someone will respond. And, the work and directions we each go in constantly inspires me.

 What inspires you to make?

An interest in storytelling for me is the key to making. I love learning stories and becoming enriched by the retelling of them in oral and material ways. I also find inspiration in the mundane. Sitting with ordinariness can lead to exciting possibilities and the pushing of my senses. I made a work earlier this year wrapping cigarette butts and litter in waste yarn from my studio. The discarded butts transformed into colour studies, which I love and refer back to for inspiration.

 How did you become a maker?

I think we’re all makers of some kind. I became a maker in weave because I created time and space for it. I left a career in community services to formally study textiles. I created a focus centred on making as opposed to dreaming about “being more creative” as I had been doing previously. It wasn’t easy. I had decades of conventional 9 to 5 work routine to unlearn. I needed to re-train in the discipline of making whenever I could – after my day job, on weekends, whilst on holidays.

 What projects do you have coming up?

I am working on a commission piece as well as a couple of personal projects that will be exhibited during 2020.

One of the projects is the imagining and creation of a cloth to present to the Goddess Athena as would have occurred in ancient Greece. Another is an exploration of womanhood and migration as experienced by my ancestors.