Before & After: Janet Brereton artwork

Birch Building stories: QR code scavenger hunt

Location: Birch Building level 1

Before: created by Janet Brereton in 1975

After: located at Birch Building level 1

Did you know... This artwork hanging in the Birch Building was created by Janet Brereton in 1975.

The artwork is titled Erosion of memory.

It is located on the level one (the ground floor) of the ANU Birch Building.

Janet Brereton is an Australian artist known for her textile and tapestry pieces.

Janet used the same technique for all her tapestries. She would map her final artwork onto graph paper, counting each knot so that she could estimate the yardage of cord and quantity of colours to dye. The rope was 24mm circumference, as large as could be adequately manipulated by hand. The warp ropes were tied to an aluminium rod which rolled up electronically as she worked. Janet used half-hitch, Z and M knots with larkshead knots to finish the base of the tapestries. References to nature are always a feature of her work. There are implicit connections between the fibre ropes and knots that she uses to create the tapestries and the natural forms that are depicted in them.

Janet Brereton dyeing rope in 1970.