Star turn for village crafts

The arts of hand weaving and embroidery will come to life this weekend in a travel-journal-themed exhibition at the Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah.

Former Rockingham resident and now Fremantle- based artist Vicki Bulliard travelled to northern Vietnam in 2013 and 2014 to learn from village craftspeople the art of making fabrics from scratch and what it was like to be a woman in that society.

The IndoChina: a Trail of Inspiration exhibition focuses on Bulliard's time in the mountain villages, well outside of the country's main cities, where she learnt how people's textiles and craft play an important part in their daily lives and culture.

Bulliard said the exhibition contained sketches, textiles and recycled items she had collected on her travels in the region.

"I've used their textiles with my own twist and turned them into my own artworks," Bulliard said.

During her trip in 2014, she was fortunate to stay in the villages, eat their traditional foods and learn their craft.

"They take so much pride in passing it on to their children," she said.

"They make everything from scratch, including natural dyeing and spinning the silk.

"Even though there is a language barrier, the women get really excited to show and share their knowledge with you."

Bulliard said she was interested in the meaning behind their attire.

"There is no written language in north Vietnam so they decorate their clothing as a way of communicating with different clans," she said.

Bulliard said she brought home samples of the handmade cloth, including raw silks and hemp, because she wanted to incorporate it into her art. "I was fascinated by it and wanted to show it off," Bulliard said.

"The exhibition is put together as a travel journey - a way of sharing what a great time I had and the realisation of how lucky we are."

Bulliard's exhibition at Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah runs from Friday to November 1.

She is holding an artist talk at CASM on Sunday at 2pm.