Kerri is a visionary who crafts sculptural textile art designed to be touched, felt and experienced. In her Friday Feature Artist interview she explains how she draws inspiration from nature and her life in country Victoria, transforming offcuts and salvage materials into tactile narratives that capture moments in time.
The video of Kerri Hollingsworth's Friday Feature Artist Interview can be found at the bottom of this page.
In Australia alone, 30 million plastic toothbrushes end up in landfill every year. Imagine the impact of just one everyday item on our planet.
When artist Kerri Hollingsworth learned this staggering fact, it ignited a transformative shift in her life and art. She embarked on a mission to reduce waste and illuminate our consumer habits, weaving discarded textiles and materials into exquisite pieces she calls ‘upholstery art’.
From Air to Art
Kerri’s journey from flight attendant to acclaimed fibre artist was sparked by a simple conversation. "I was flying to different cities, shopping, not at all aware of my impact on the planet," she recalls.
That changed when a friend shared a startling statistic - 30 million plastic toothbrushes end up in Australian landfills each year. "At the time, I was a flight attendant...and that was actually a conversation on board an aircraft one day with a beautiful friend of mine. We were just having a normal conversation about toothbrushes. She told me the statistics, and it was from that conversation that everything changed for me."
That eye-opening moment ignited a transformative shift in Kerri's life and art. "I started looking into what is being thrown out. For starters, and for example, with the plastic toothbrushes, I just had a real light bulb moment that every single toothbrush that I had ever owned was still in the ground somewhere. It hasn't broken down, and it's going to be there for hundreds of years. That's something that really sort of shocked me into action, I guess."
Kerri began exploring ways to reduce waste, weaving discarded textiles and materials into exquisite sculptural pieces. She explains, "I was looking at my workshop and all these beautiful textiles and trim off cuts and beautiful scraps that were just going in the bin. I thought, surely, there's another way that I can utilise these. So that's where the fibre art came in."
Following Intuition
As an artist, Kerri relies on instinct. “I see intuition as a bit of a flowing river,” she says. “If you're not getting any movement, and you're coming up hard against the feeling that something's not working, my interpretation of it is that I’m not working with my intuition.
A river would go around the rock or the big log. Usually it's when I'm coming up against a hard point, when the intent is getting more energy than the intuition, I step back and ask, ‘What's going on here?’ Sometimes, all I need is a bit of a cleanout in the workshop or a journal session to get the river flowing again, so to speak.”
When you visit Kerri’s website, you’ll see that the role of photography is integral to complete Kerri's artistic process and showcase her beautiful works. She often envisions the perfect setting for her upholstered pieces, collaborating closely with her photographer, Aaron, to bring these visions to life.
For example, Kerri explains that “Willow, a green chair, was photographed in a waterfall. I had a vision for such a long time throughout creating that, and I'd joke with my photographer, Aaron, about it, and we ended up hiking to the waterfall with that chair on my head and Aaron with all his camera gear. There were a lot of big steps, but we both had the vision in our mind and the photos turned out beautifully."
Kerri’s commitment to capturing nature-inspired settings in her work is evident in pieces like the Regeneration chair, which she collaborated on with fellow artist Norton Fredericks.
"The beautiful dark felt down the side of the chair symbolises when a bush fire comes through and chars everything. As you follow the chair around, you'll see the dark, charred-looking fibres start to come to life. Then you see tiny bits of the orange come through, and that's signifying the rebirth of nature. And as you get around to the back, you've obviously got a lot of brighter colours. There are emu feathers there - animals coming back in as well. It’s life coming back after those significant losses. That was a really beautiful collaboration to be a part of."
Chairs that become art are sourced from hard rubbish, with Kerri’s family members donating pieces they have collected over the years and Kerri bringing them to life when the time is right.
“The majority of the time, I start out with the frame, and then I go through my cupboards and I start pulling out things and putting them away, and just sort of create a base of what I think the feel will be.
From then, when I start creating things, chop and change. One thing that I will say is that it's not over until I know in my heart it's over. There is an end in mind. But if I get there and it doesn't feel like the end, it's not the end. It just keeps going until I'm absolutely in love with what it is that I'm handing over to someone.”
Kerrie remarks that intuition leads her with these projects. “By following your intuition, you can’t actually go wrong.”
Memorable Commissions
Kerri's work has resonated deeply with clients, who entrust her with their most sentimental treasures. One particularly poignant commission involved a wall art piece made from a client's wedding items.
"She sent over a big box of the flowers that were on her wedding dress and on the flower girls' dresses. There was part of her tiara, her flower feather bouquet, even her jewellery and jewellery box and so many things. She was handing over things that meant so much to her, and then I created a piece of artwork to go in their family home where they could see and appreciate those treasures instead of keeping them in a box stored away in the cupboard. It was special for them and a lovely piece to work on. It was so full of love.”
About Kerri Hollingsworth
As a conscious creator, Kerri continuously pushes the boundaries of her artistic abilities. Her art practice is highly intuitive and draws on Kerri’s deep respect for nature.
From her studio nestled amongst the gumtrees on Taungurung Country in Taggerty, Victoria, Kerri weaves together natural fibres and recycled textiles to create statement sculptural pieces designed to be touched, felt, and experienced. Her work is a tactile narrative inspired by nature, motherhood, and the simple beauty of everyday life on the farm.
