In early 2018, after watching the Perth Artists series filmed by Peter Cheng, I was so moved by Tamsyn’s words I knew in my heart that I had to connect with her. Without allowing myself the chance to overthink things I reached out and pressed send. To my absolute joy, Tamsyn responded and over the following months and years we met, drank tea, shared ideas, and so was born our collaborative project, ‘Dadirri’.

“The connection with country is sacred to First Nations people. It is an interesting activity for people visiting this country, or travelling to other countries, or immigrants, to sit and sense what speaks to them when grounding themselves and becoming mindful in any particular place. Our project, Dadirri, a concept and practice brought to widespread focus by Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr (AO), an Aboriginal elder from Nauiyu (Daly River), aims to demonstrate the functional, aesthetic and ethical outcomes when engaged in this Indigenous practice.”

Nomadic Nostalgia was a personal exploration into my Scottish cultural heritage and the impact of this on creating new connections to people and place. It was a deeply narrative collection that visually demonstrated the transitional experience of the migrant. Aspects of my own association with Scottish tartan, the thistle (Scotland’s national emblem) and the kilt were explored. I also used deconstructed garments that, through movement on the body, demonstrated the awkwardness of arriving in a new country along with silhouettes that visually represented feelings of loss, grounding, belonging and connection.

“Who are we when we no longer exist, but the memories of those we have left behind?”

With a recurring fascination in what people choose to remember and hold onto throughout their lives and in turn what others remember when they think of us, Ziemons explores the significant events, the fleeting moments, the sadness and the conversations of her ancestors.

In both the exhibition and narrative textile collection Ziemons notes that there is often a disconnect between what we would want people to remember about us and our at times painful inability to control which moments hold significance to others.

The focus of Fragmented Memories resides within a quiet space in which Ziemons seeks to develop an understanding of the human connection to everyday cloth, mark and stains. How individuals can become ‘attached’ to the everyday object such as a handkerchief, a blouse, a broken piece of crockery and what is implicit within these pieces that gives rise to this level of deep connection when other objects and used pieces of cloth are tossed into the bin with little regard.