Australian artist Rachel Burke suffered personal trauma that left her grieving and, at times, bedridden. She discovered a sense of healing in sharing her story via artworks created with thousands of tiny, brightly coloured plastic beads.
"We have to be wary of assuming that because something's colourful, it's about joy," Rachel Burke says. Rachel Burke 's designs — worn by stars like Harry Styles and Cate Blanchett — are outwardly cute, colourful, nostalgic and unashamedly dopamine-inducing.
For much of the following year, she kept her successful Instagram page brimming with engaging creations, while privately taking the time she needed to start processing her experience.Her material of choice? Melty beads. That experience in the craft store had stuck with her.A plastic craft material often used by children, melty beads are arranged on a grid in patterns, then ironed to melt and fuse the beads together in an image.
She hadn't started off aiming to create an exhibition, but she realised there was an important opportunity to speak out about the "taboo" subject of miscarriage. For the past two years, this has been the space where she's slowly laid down bead after bead in an urgent act of healing. "Over and over again in each of the losses, I would be told that it was just going to feel like a period cramp, the loss. And it was so much more excruciating than that.
Their designs were inspired by domestic motifs like vintage quilts, patchworks, tea towels and cross-stitches. For example, there are 28 repeated, multicoloured tiles inscribed with the phrase, "Thanks for nothing" — something the artist often said to herself, to her body. "It wasn't meant to be", "Wow, it is very common hey" and "maybe you just need to relax" are just some of the unhelpful comments Burke heard after miscarriage.Beginning to talk to people about her miscarriages, she learnt there was a perception that, "having a miscarriage is a deep, dark secret, that it's a shock to be sharing something like that".Her latest artworks are a direct response to that.
Burke wanted her latest artworks to be presented in a gallery setting, to create a safe environment for much-needed conversation and connection.
Imakestagram Influencer Artist Craft Side Gallery Melty Beads Art Therapy Mindfulness
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