JamFactory ICON 2025 Aunty Ellen Trevorrow:
Weaving Through Time

JamFactory’s ICON series celebrates the achievements of South Australia’s most influential visual artists working in craft-based media. Aunty Ellen Trevorrow is a proud Ngarrindjeri woman and a prolific, internationally acclaimed weaver with over 40 years of weaving experience. Weaving through Time is a celebration of Aunty Ellen’s unwavering dedication to culture, community and innovation in contemporary Ngarrindjeri weaving.

Curated by Kaurna, Narrunga, Ngarrindjeri woman Carly Tarkari Dodd, Weaving Through Time showcases predominantly new works by Aunty Ellen, produced with her long-time collaborator, Dr Jelina Haines. The exhibition visually and textually documents Aunty Ellen’s evolution as an artist, from her early traditional baskets and fish traps to her recent large-scale sculptures and wearable works, including dresses, jewellery and textiles. These more recent works highlight her two-decades-long collaboration with Dr Haines and demonstrate the depth and breadth of her artistic practice.

In Weaving Through Time, Aunty Ellen carries tens of thousands of years of knowledge, passed down from her Elders. Her work continues an essential legacy: the transmission of culture to future generations, ensuring the continuation of culture.

The exhibition will be launched at JamFactory Adelaide as part of SALA Festival before touring to JamFactory Seppeltfield for Tarnanthi, followed by 6 venues nationally across SA, VIC, NSW and QLD. It is accompanied by a 120-page monograph, supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and written by Carly Tarkari Dodd with contributions by Dominic Guerrera, Jelina Haines, and Aunty Ellen Trevorrow.

JamFactory ICON Aunty Ellen Trevorrow: Weaving Through Time is a JamFactory touring exhibition supported by the Visions of Australia touring program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to cultural material for all Australians.

Exhibitors: Aunty Ellen Trevorrow with Jelina Haines

Curated by Carly Tarkari Dodd

Display furniture designed and fabricated by JamFactory’s Furniture and Metal Studios

Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, Swamp Weed (Selliera radicans) Woven Bag, 2024, Sedge grass, quandong seeds, Photo: Connor Patterson

KURDINTHI Marketplace

Discover a collection of incredible woven works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across the country at this curated marketplace coinciding with the KURDINTHI National First Nations Weaving Symposium.

Image: Woven Mat with Emu Feathers by Emma Stenhouse

Kuruṉpa Kuṉpu | Strong Spirit

Kuruṉpa Kuṉpu | Strong Spirit features a collection of award-winning furniture works that resulted from a multi-year cross-cultural design collaboration between First Nations makers Tanya Singer and Errol Evans and designer Trent Jansen. Over three years, Tanya, Errol and Trent spent time in each other’s communities, learning about their unique relationships with Country, family and community. By engaging with their respective cultural practices and traditions, the designers have realised a collection of works that speak to the resilience of both First Nations people and ngura (Country), celebrating the potential for inter-cultural collaboration to embody diverse cultural values and lived experiences. 

Exhibitors: Errol Evans, Trent Jansen, Tanya Singer

The exhibition is part of Tarnanthi 2025

Nurnakanha Lyaartinya Urrkaapuntja | Our New Work on Glass

Artists from the lltja Ntjarra Art Centre have partnered with Canberra Glassworks to reinterpret the Hermannsburg School watercolour tradition through the medium of glass. Following a series of collaborative workshops in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), the Canberra Glassworks has created glass ‘blanks’ that were sent to Mparntwe for artists to work on, and these were then returned to CGW for engraving and hand finishing. The result is a spectacular series of blown glass vessels featuring the artists’ landscape paintings in a continuation of Albert Namatjira’s work. The collaboration follows an artist-led approach, focusing on stories and the curatorial rationale at Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre.

Exhibitors: Mona Lisa (Benita) Clements, Carita Coulthard, Dellina Inkamala, Dianne Inkamala, Kathy Inkamala, Raelene Inkamala, Reinhold Inkamala, Vanessa Inkamala, Mandy Malbunka, Betty Namatjira Wheeler, Mervyn Rubuntja, Kumantjai M Wheeler 

The exhibition is part of Tarnanthi 2025

Trent Jansen and Tanya Singer, Manta Pilti | Dry Sand Low Chair, 2023, American walnut, photographer: Fiona Susanto

Dellina Inkamlala of Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre, Tjoritja - West MacDonnell Ranges, 2025, Watercolour, Gouache, Glass Paint on Glass Dome, 350 x 200 x 230, Photo: Connor Patterson

Tiarnie Edwards: Good Trouble

Ngarrindjeri emerging artist Tiarnie Edwards presents ‘Good Trouble’ a new solo exhibition of figurative ceramic works exploring community, activism and family. Tiarnie’s characters, while outwardly cute, hold within them a powerful political and social commentary, centred on the Blackfella experience; here cuteness holds space for rage, strength and joy.

Through Tiarnie’s work we see colonial critique balanced with the contemporary subcultural materiality of graffiti, and references to Blak excellence. Tiarnie’s work is timely, responsive and intersectional. We’re reminded that decolonisation, Black deaths in custody and land rights are vastly interconnected issues. They open a lens to the important concerns of our times and remind us that our future depends on the choices we make now. But these characters aren’t passive observers, they’re here to fight back.

In Good Trouble Tiarnie’s unique hand-built clay characters engage in a tableau vivant, allowing audiences a glimpse into their nuanced, vibrant and complex lives. Rather than classic scenes of ‘Nymphs Bathing’ or ‘Diana the huntress’, we see Tiarnie’s Mud Gang getting up to mischief and also supporting and keeping each other safe. This illustrative storytelling style mirrors the linework in linocut political posters, referenced in the exhibition through carved clay tiles. Tiarnie’s hand-cut motifs bring us to the inherent humanity within the work. Their dynamic imperfections invoke energy and agency and likewise share a message of activism — always was, always will be.

The exhibition is part of Tarnanthi 2025

 Exhibitor: Tiarnie Edwards

Tiarnie Edwards, Mongrel, 45 x 64 x 22, Photo: Connor Patterson

Rurkuni – Gusting, Revving, Rushing

Using contemporary weaving techniques, the artists of Tjanpi Desert Weavers from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands have worked closely with JamFactory’s Head of Jewellery and Metal Studio Tom Golin to develop a new body of sculptural works inspired by the elements on Country. Tom has fabricated undulating metal frames on which the Tjanpi Desert Weavers have created new and experimental forms.

Exhibitors: Kathy Dodd, Sheena Dodd, Tom Golin, Emma Singer, Pauline Wangin, Pinuka Yai Yai, Julie Yangki, Amy Yilpi, Rhonda Young

The exhibition is part of Tarnanthi 2025