Robyn Glade-Wright is a well-respected Australian textile artist and teacher who has resided in Tasmania since 1981. Over the last twenty years her work has appeared in exhibitions in Australia, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Glade-Wright combines her interest in design and textile techniques with strong political messages using her work to reflect on some of the major environmental and social issues facing contemporary Australia. In these shirts she features three crucial environmental concerns facing Tasmania, reflecting issues that have dramatically divided Tasmanian society. 'Chipped in Tasmania' highlights the destruction of Tasmania's Old Growth forests for the woodchip industry and the subsequent effects on global warming, 'Dam Shirt' reflects on attempts to build hydroelectric dams on Tasmania's wild rivers while 'The Colonist' draws attention to the destruction of native species through the introduction of the Northern Pacific Seastar.

While dress can be read on a multiplicity of levels to reveal much about the times we live in, the shirt and in particular the T-shirt have over the last two decades become an important site for conveying thoughts, events and issues peculiar to the time it is made and worn. Through text and image they become commemoratives of causes, celebrations, events and achievements. Glade-Wright's shirts are in the form of a Hawaiian shirt, drawing on its associations with exotic holiday destinations and sun filled carefree days on the beach, an idyll that often masks more serious concerns. Her exotic holiday location is Tasmania and her graphics try to recall a land of wild rivers, undisturbed wilderness and pristine waters but instead, her tourists take away a souvenir of Tasmania's wild and natural beauty under threat.

Glade Wright also designed and printed the labels for each garment, branding her shirts the 'Tassie Memory Shirt Company' highlighting her concerns for the future of Tasmania's natural environment.

Shirt, womens, and coat hanger, 'Chipped in Tasmania', transfer printed computer generated images, nylon/ plastic, designed and made by Robyn Glade-Wright, Tasmania, Australia, 2001

Shirt: bright green nylon Hawaiian style shirt featuring design on front entitled 'Chipped in Tasmania'. Design comprises a pattern of multicoloured tree stumps. The computer generated images were printed on transfer material and ironed onto the shirt. Short sleeved, loose fitting shirt features a small collar, patch pocket on chest and closure down centre front fastens with five white plastic buttons. The shirt is machine sewn and unlined.

Coat hanger: moulded green plastic coat hanger.

Born in Cessnock, NSW in 1959, Glade-Wright graduated in 1980 after studying weaving and textile design with the German-trained Marcella Hempel in Wagga Wagga. She moved to Tasmania in 1981 and has exhibited consistently throughout Australia as well as in Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Glade-Wright combines her interest in design and textile techniques with strong political messages using her work to reflect on some of the major environmental and social issues facing contemporary Australia. 'My fabrics are concerned with functional integrity and decorative purpose. Why not have meaningful fabric designs?' she asked, as early as 1992. (1) At that time she was not only designing textiles for the Waverly Woollen Mills in Launceston, but also using a power loom to weave upholstery fabrics for furniture designers, and making one-off 'wall installations' with social themes. More recently, Glade-Wright has worked with Tascot Templeton Pty Ltd, in Devonport, weavers of industrial Axminster carpet. Here, hand trials emulating the surface of Axminster carpet were constructed from computer generated designs on themes to do with the Australian environment, as part of a research master's degree in 2000 that aimed to demonstrate how visual design strategies can be effective in disguising carpet wear.

In these three shirts Robyn Glade-Wright moved away from her usual medium, weaving, seeking instead a vehicle that would provide more realistic images and give greater freedom in the design process. She chose to work with computer-generated images which were then printed on transfer material and ironed onto the shirts.

A feature of Glade-Wright's work is repetition of form and pattern. In each of these shirts she has repeated one image over each shirt, the repetition setting the rhythm for each piece. In 'Chipped in Tasmania' the orderly pattern of tree stumps float on a desolate sea of bright green synthetic fabric. The picture postcards of waterfalls in 'Dam Shirt' tumble over the shirt signalling a dynamic uncontrolled environment. The Seastars of 'The Colonist' shirt crawl at random over the hot pink synthetic ground deceiving with their bright colours and charming silhouette.


In these shirts Robyn Glade-Wright moved away from her usual medium, weaving, seeking instead a vehicle that would provide more realistic images and give her greater freedom. She used computer-generated images which were then printed onto transfer material and ironed onto the shirts.

Glade-Wright also made the shirts. She spent some time sourcing a 'revolting' bright green synthetic fabric, its overwrought and unnatural colour reflecting her disgust with the Tasmanian and Australian Federal government's exploitation and destruction of Tasmania's beautiful and unique natural environment.


These shirts were made in 2001.

The shirts were originally designed and made by Robyn Glade-Wright for 'Souvenir' an exhibition of holiday memento interpretation held at Gallery A in the University of Tasmania, Launceston, May 2001.
The shirts were originally designed and made for an exhibition at Gallery A at the University of Tasmania, Launceston. They were subsequently donated by Glade-Wright to AuctionTasmanica, an auction of works donated by Tasmanian artists and craftpeople in aid of Tasmania Greens candidate, Bob Brown's Senate re-election campaign. The auction was held at the Salamanca Art Centre's Long Gallery, Hobart, Sunday September 30, 2001. The Powerhouse Museum placed a successful phone bid for the three Glade-Wright shirts.

Purchased 2001

Printed fabric label inside centre back neck 'Tassie MEMORY/SHIRT COMPANY/100% SYNTHETIC/MADE OFF SHORE'. Large printed cardboard swing tag attached to proper left arm 'Chipped in Tasmania/COLOUR 414/SIZE 08/...barcode.../RRP $ GLOBAL WARMING'.

2001/109/1