The idea behind Five2 is to showcase the diversity of creativity within tACTile in an innovative way. Each artist created a large square work to an individually chosen theme. The other four artists took the work as the starting inspiration for the creation of a smaller piece. The four individual responses hang together as a modular composite beside the original work.

The idea behind Five Squared is to showcase the diversity of creativity within tACTile in an innovative way. Each artist (five artists because Beth and Trevor Reid work in partnership) created a large square work to an individually chosen theme. The other four artists took the work as the starting inspiration for the creation of a smaller piece. The four individual responses hang together as a modular composite beside the original work. As well, the artists created an additional large piece to their theme.

Overall the exhibition comprises ten large pieces (1.5m x 1.5m) and twenty small pieces (73cm x 73cm). These hang as a five modular compositions (1.5m x 1.5m) beside the work that inspired them.

Background to tACTile

tACTile was founded at the end of 2001 by a group of Canberra based textile artists to advance contemporary quiltmaking in Australia by exploring the opportunities of the art quilt. tACTile comprises 6 members; Jenny Bowker, Dianne Firth, Helen Gray and Beth Miller with Beth and Trevor Reid working together in partnership. All the artists are individually acknowledged as leaders in the field of contemporary quiltmaking at local, national and international levels.

Since 2001, as well as exploring a body of experimental work, tACTile has produced and toured its first exhibition, Pathways. The name tACTile was chosen to allude to the touch of textiles while incorporating the fact that they all live in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory). It also provided another level of meaning to the tiled grid of the group's first collaborative piece.

tACTile's second travelling exhibition, Five2, continues the collaborative dialogue and is planned to travel to Australian states and territories from 2005 to 2007.

Select a link at the top of the page to view the quilts, or click on one of the images below.