In 2014 the ATW collaborated with Brook Andrew to create Catching Breath—the latest edition to the ATW’s Embassy Collection—currently on loan to the Australian High Commission in Singapore.

In an effort to bring forgotten histories of Indigenous Australians to the fore, Andrew recontextualizes found archival material. Catching Breath is a veiled portrait of a seemingly unknown subject, sourced from the artist’s archive of rare books, postcards and paraphernalia. This archive is an active medium that Andrew incorporates into his museum installations and exhibitions. The act and presence of the veil is well known for concealing or representing faith, culture and social values. In Catching Breath the subject peers through the veil with eyes clearly focused on the outside. This eye communication catches the viewer’s attention and breath, as they decide whether or not to lift the subjects’ veil, to reveal the unknown.

This project was proudly supported by the Tapestry Foundation of Australia and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The design was woven in two parts, separating the portrait and the veil. Both parts were woven with the same palette, however the veil is a thinner shaped-piece, woven with an even weave (warp and weft visible in even amounts) and in a technique similar to cloth weaving. The veil was woven with a visible black warp, specially dyed at the Workshop by ATW dyer Tony Stefanovski, and silver Lurex thread.

Brook Andrew is represented by Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and Brussels.