Jane Burns 'Movement (Arrest)'

MOVEMENT (ARREST) by Jane burns consists of ten large-scale works exploring the tension between individuals and authority at the moment of arrest. The series examines the clash between urgent social movements and political resistance and the title refers both to the act of arrest and to broader efforts to suppress emerging citizen movements.

These handwoven works were created on the TC2 Jacquard loom, a computer-controlled, manually-operated handloom that allows Burns to translate photographic detail into pattern, structure, and pixel-level imagery, building each work thread by thread to large scale. Burns is interested in how this technology allows for the traditions of hand woven tapestry with the flexibility to use digital imagery and produce objects that sit between the pictorialism of painting and photography, and the materiality of weaving.

Her practice is influenced by contemporary politics and the social responses to systemic changes affecting both societal and planetary health. Drawing from news cycles and the representation of citizens engaged in political, social, and environmental protests, she considers works such as Movement (Arrest), a form of witness statement about human interaction during this time in humanity's history, when there is an increasing need for citizens to stand up.

Jane Burns is an Australian artist, based in Naarm/Melbourne on the unceded Country of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples. She holds a Bachelor Fine Art Degree - Sculpture (1992), Graduate Certificate - Visual Art (2018) from the Victorian College of the Arts, and Diploma of Education - Art (2005) from Monash University.

Burns' practice has ranged across photography, printmaking and installation, but in recent years has focused on digital weaving, creating handwoven works on the TC2 Jacquard loom—a computer-controlled, manually operated handloom. This practice integrates the disciplines of hand weaving and digital weaving, and utilises an innovative technology that only a few artists in Australia currently use.As there are just three TC2 looms in Australia - and none are publicly accessible, she has to travel overseas to access her tools. Over the past five years, Burns’ has undertaken residencies and workshops in Finland and New Zealand to gain specialist skills with master weavers and produce work, culminating in exhibitions. Burns is interested in how this technology allows for the traditions of hand woven tapestry with the flexibility to use digital imagery and produce objects that sit between the pictorialism of painting and photography, and the materiality of weaving. Through the laborious process of hand weaving, she constructs detailed surfaces of pattern, structure, and pixel-level imagery, building each work thread by thread, often to large scale.

The series Movement (Arrest) was made in Finland in 2024 on the largest TC2 loom available. These works explore the tension between individuals and authority at the moment of arrest. Reimagining news imagery of environmental protests, the series examines the clash between urgent social movements and political resistance and the title refers both to the act of arrest and to broader efforts to suppress emerging citizen movements.

In 2024, she completed a residency at UNSW Art & Design, where she developed studies for Stubborn Tangles, a new handwoven series. These works explore the body in protest, investigating collective action and resistance at a time when far-right ideologies and conspiracy movements seek to divide and destabilise communities. The final series will be produced in Aubusson, France, in 2025.

In By a Thread, another body of textile work, the artist deconstructed cloth she had printed, to leave only the warp thread remaining, the ghostly traces representing critically endangered animals and species loss. By a Thread was featured in Art + Climate = Change 2019, Art + Climate Change II (2022), and exhibited at MARS Gallery.

Alongside her art practice, Jane works as an environmental consultant, advising on environmental action and behaviour change. In 2015, she was awarded Victorian Environmental & Sustainability Educator of the Year.

She maintains a studio at Creative Spaces, The Meat Market.

https://www.janeburns.com.au/movement
@jane_burns_artist