The Subversive Stitch
In addressing the ideologies of modernism, particularly abstraction, the eleven artists included in The Subversive Stitch exhibition at the Monash University Gallery expose and reframe the limits of modernism. Through reworking aspects of modernism, these artists map out an expanded discursive field which shifts the terrain of modernism. Most of these artists have received little commercial exposure, mainly exhibiting through the independent exhibition spaces, Store 5 and 200 Gertrude Street in Melbourne and First Draft in Sydney. Store 5 and First Draft are artist-run spaces that allow young artists to exhibit their work outside the possible con- straints of market forces. The lineage of alternative spaces has developed from the seventies and early eighties with Gallery A, Inhibodress and Art Projects, so that a history already exists of independent spaces which function to support marginalized art practices.