Described as Australia’s first three-dimensional tapestry, Welcome to Country – now you see me: seeing the invisible will be housed in the new Footscray Hospital in Melbourne’s west, designed by First Nations artists Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung) and Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Barkindji).
The tapestry is inspired by images of river reeds by the Maribyrnong River and was hand-woven at the Australian Tapestry Workshop. Twelve Victoria-based weavers, two dyeing specialists and two support staff spent over 10,000 hours of work over 14 months to realise this artistic vision. More than 270 kilometres of wool from farms across Victoria and 103 yarn colours were used, with the final tapestry measuring 42 square metres and weighing 135 kilograms.
