Jane O’Neill 02 - 25 March 2023

Jeans Party

Exhibitions

Spring1883 Art Fair 2025

Denouement | 2024

Midway Arcade | 2024

Spring1883 Art fair 2023

Derived from pre-worn jeans sourced from friends, op-shops and occasionally the street, ‘Jeans Party’ draws a parallel between the communal creativity associated with festivity preparations and exhibitions. The presentation creates a forum to explore connections with the textiles we wear, the conditions in which they are made and the social circumstances involving their use. Overlaid with varying shades of blue, the artist inscribes a new topography upon the existing fabric using synthetic, cotton and upcycled threads. The works draw on the polychromatic nature of the twill weave used to make denim to propose an alternative material existence for the pre-existing garments. Seam lines, stains and fade marks are incorporated into the works, revealing surprisingly celestial effects. For the viewer, the works encourage consideration of their own denim story - the jeans they have worn, where they have worn them and who they are when they wear them.

Jane O'Neill is a visual artist and curator based on Wurundjeri woiwurrung Country. Her recent work employs the logic of textiles to explore social disentanglement and connectivity. Her practice includes installation, collage, painting and textiles. Between 1996 and 2007 O’Neill exhibited regularly in artist-run-spaces in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne including Pendulum, CBD Gallery, Soapbox, West Space, Elastic and Blindside. In 2004 her work was included in the Avalon exhibition curated by Ricardo Felipe at the Museum of Brisbane. In 2015, she occupied the Bluestone Building at the Living Museum of the West to create the exhibition Municipal City Baths. 

Jeans Party is presented as part of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Fashion Culture Program.