Sera Waters is an Australian textile artist, arts writer, and arts educator. She lectures at

Adelaide Central School of Art Adelaide Central School of Art is an independent, not-for-profit, accredited higher education provider of tertiary courses in the visual arts, located in Glenside, Adelaide, Australia. The school, which was founded in 1982, offers degree cour ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Early life

Sera Waters was born in

Murray Bridge, South Australia Murray Bridge (formerly Mobilong and Edwards Crossing; ) is a city in the Australian state of South Australia, located east-southeast of the state's capital city, Adelaide, and north of the town of Meningie. The city is called ''Pomberuk'' b ...

, in 1979. She received a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) from the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

in 2000. In 2005 she was awarded the

Ruth Tuck Scholarship for Visual Arts Carclew is an Australian youth arts centre based in Adelaide, South Australia. It was founded in 1971 as the South Australian Performing Arts Centre, with its name changed on several occasions to variations of Carclew Youth Performing Arts Cent ...

, and used it to undertake study at the

Royal School of Needlework The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is a hand embroidery school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1872 and based at Hampton Court Palace since 1987. History The RSN began as the School of Art Needlework in 1872, founded by Lady Victoria Welby. ...

in the UK. She then went on to earn a Masters of Visual Arts from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

in 2006, and later (2018) a PhD from the University of South Australia

Artistic style and subject

Waters specialises in

textile arts Textile arts are arts and crafts that use fiber crop, plant, Animal fiber, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative Physical object, objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of ...

and techniques, such as

embroidery Embroidery is the art of decorating Textile, fabric or other materials using a Sewing needle, needle to stitch Yarn, thread or yarn. It is one of the oldest forms of Textile arts, textile art, with origins dating back thousands of years across ...

. Waters’

blackwork Blackwork, sometimes historically termed Spanish blackwork, is a form of embroidery generally worked in black thread, although other colours are also used on occasion, as in scarletwork, where the embroidery is worked in red thread. Most strong ...

is considered her signature technique. In her PhD thesis, she used

to explore family genealogy. Her works have been described as deeply conceptual, witty, and using humble needlework to encompass worlds of concern. As well as examining the colonial experience through her art, she is concerned with practicing art on Aboriginal land and the impact of

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

. She is also interested in textiles arts embodying labour and time.

Academic career

Waters lectures in art history at

Awards, residencies, and scholarships

* 2006:

* 2016: Heysen Prize for Landscape, Hahndorf Academy * 2018:

Hill Smith Gallery Pirie Street is a road on the east side of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It runs east–west, between East Terrace and King William Street. After crossing King William Street, it continues as Waymouth Street. It forms the southern ...

/ University of South Australia Postgraduate Award,

Helpmann Academy The Helpmann Academy is an organisation that provides support emerging artists in the performing and visual arts, located in Adelaide, South Australia. It is named in honour of Sir Robert Helpmann, a famous Australian dancer. History The Helpma ...

* 2019: Finalist,

Ramsay Art Prize The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant art museum, visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a col ...

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

* 2020: Guildhouse Fellowship, from the

Collections

* Cruthers Collection of Women's Art,

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

Cruthers Collection of Women's Art
(see PDF of works held)

Bibliography

By Waters

* Lawrence, Kay, Waters, Sera, & Belfrage, Clare. 2018, ''Clare Belfrage : rhythms of necessity'', Wakefield Press, Mile End, South Australia
Worldcat record
* Waters, Sera Jaye. 2006. ''Invoking disaster : visions of the monstrous and catastrophic in Japanese visual culture from the Edo and postwar periods''
Thesis
University of Adelaide. * Waters, Sera. 2007. Valuing relationships: Concertina. ''Artlink'', Vol. 27, No. 4, 39-41 * Waters, Sera. 2012
Repetitive crafting: The shared aesthetic of time in Australian contemporary art
''craft+design enquiry'', 4, 69-87. * Waters, Sera. 2015
Inside the Outback: An Exploration of Domesticated Landscapes in Semco’s Long Stitch Originals Series of the 1980s
''craft+design enquiry'', 7, (2015): 27-48. * Waters, Sera. 2015
Knotted Lines: Entangling genealogical methodology with practice-led research. ACUADS 2015 Annual Conference
Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools. * Waters, Sera. 2018. ''Genealogical ghostscapes : unsettling settler colonial home-making legacies in South Australia''
Thesis
. University of South Australia. * Waters, Sera. 2020
Crafty prepping
''Artlink'', Vol. 40, No. 1, Mar 2020: 20-27.

About Waters

* Adams, Jude. Three artists - in the world: Anne Kay, Irmina van Niele, Sera Waters. ''Artlink'', Vol. 29, No. 2, Jun 2009: 89. * Clarke, K. 2016
Willful knitting? Contemporary Australian craftivism and feminist histories
''Continuum'', 30(3), 298-306. * Coleman, Sheridan. Dark Portals: Sera Waters. ''Art Monthly Australia'', no.264, Oct 2013: 39-42. * Hart, Sheridan. 2018
Sera Waters unpicks the long stitches of Australian history
''Art Guide Australia''. * Kelly, Miriam. 2017
Sera Waters: Domestic arts
''Artlink'', 37(4), 48–55.

Exhibition catalogues

* Capone, Jacobus & Thwaites, Vivonne & Garnaut, Christine & Collins, Julie & Fazakerley, Ruth, 1965- et al. (2012).
Build me a city : an exploration of the archives of the Architecture Museum, UniSA by seven artists
'. Architecture Museum and Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, S. Aust. * Purvis, Andrew. 2020.
Drastic Fabric
". Adelaide Central School of Art. * Waters, Sera, Nowell, Liz, & Kelly, Miriam. 2017. ''Sera Waters: Domestic arts''. ACE Open
Worldcat record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Waters, Sera Living people Artists from South Australia Australian contemporary artists Artists from Adelaide 20th-century Australian artists 21st-century Australian artists Australian art educators Australian women art educators 1979 births Australian embroiderers Australian lecturers