Deborah Prior’s art practice navigates the complexities and pleasures of having and being a body, via craft practices including knitting, stitching and embroidery.

Using salvaged, stained, and damaged material(s) from the domestic sphere, she crafts soft sculptures, installations, and performances that explore ideas of bodily agency, disgust & desire, and the personal and social histories of domestic work.

Most recently, Prior has been investigating the shared visual language of body fragments in medical illustration/modelling and religious iconography, positioning her textile pieces as profane relics to invite conversation around the contested knowledges, histories, and mythologies of female corporeality.

Based in Adelaide, Prior has been crafting strange anatomies for thirteen years. She completed her PhD in Visual Arts at UniSA in 2014. In 2016 she spent several months on residency in Italy as the recipient of the Helpmann Academy British School in Rome Residency, which continues to be a rich vein of inspiration for her practice.