Design and Art Australia Online

Installation artist, in correspondence with Joan Kerr in October 1999 Irving described her (then) most recent work in response to Kerr’s paper In Memoriam :

Last year [1998] I created an installation in the St Bartholomew’s Chapel in the Old East Perth Cemetery. This was the original Swan River Colony cemetery and many of the grave sites have been vandalised over the years. I wanted to honor [sic] the women of that period and as part of the installation, created a 3m x 1m shroud of rose petals. It consisted of around 3 thousand rose petals which had the first names of all the women and female children buried there, written onto a fresh rose petal which was dried and then delicately stitched together with silk embroidery thread. The shroud was strong but fragile, and as it was suspended from the rafters the names were visible as transparent tracery.

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Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1999

Last updated:

2011