Memory - not of people, places, things.  The body remembers, the body remembers like a rhythm felt but not yet heard.  The rhythm of sleeping breath, nurturing night, the shifting elusive bordertime that is neither night nor day.  The quilt that covers the sleeping body takes on that energy, like an imprint in the cloth, like a memory in the cloth.  the quilt is the body.  The body remembers.  (Jane Whiteley, catalogue)

This exhibition is Jane Whiteley's 10 year exploration into the humanity and power of cloth.  Here you do not find the traditional coloured patchwork quilt, nor do you find decorative or wildly experimental wall pieces.  Instead, the works mesmerize as they draw the attention to the silent testimony of the multi-faceted associations of cloth.

Technically, the format of the works draws on the making of traditional patchwork quilts, with their layering of used fabrics to re-create fabrics that comfort and warm the body.  Take Headboard Quilt for instance.  This is made of hand-stitched cotton shirts.  Or the lovingly crafted Marina's Shirt Quilt which again is made of old shirts with appliqué.  The imagery is of secondary importance as one contemplates on the imagined stories attached to the original pieces in the quilts.  They carry a history like the colonial 'waggas' which were found in most early settlers' homes.

The works are intimate with their tactility, inviting close scrutiny and contemplation on the minutiae of colour and texture in pieces such as Sides to the Middle, Fingers to the Bone and From Within.  From a distance these pieces look like paintings, but the textures of stitch and dye becomes apparent up close.  The unique qualities of indigo dyeing in counterpoint with the fine red stitching alone give sufficient rationale for appreciating these works.  Given the amount of hand-stitching that has gone into the work, consideration then goes to the added dimension that temporality brings with all its ramifications.  What, for instance, were the conditions under which the pieces were executed?  Who, besides the artist/maker was involved in the making?

One of the advantages of textile as a medium is the variety of ways of hanging and looking at the work.  Quilt for a Sleeping Person, Quiet Time and Border Time hang together as an installation in the middle of a small room with an associated sound piece by Peter Keelan.  This installation is for walking through, listening and feeling the textiles, as well as appreciating their subtle beauty.  Dare I suggest resonances of Rothko?  After all, these are mere textile pieces - humble quilts, in fact.  Perhaps the piece of work that most resembles a painting is Entrance, which comprises pieced fabrics on canvas.  Again, instead of accepting the imagery for face value, the subtlety of the dyed and layered fabrics overtakes the consciousness.

Conventional ways of looking are best forgotten in this exhibition.  The silences and invisible presence in each work reveal the as yet untapped quality of textile as a medium that could influence the direction that contemporary art practice could take in the future.