Holly O’Meehan

Holly O’Meehan (b. 1991) works with two distinctive, apparently unrelated mediums: crochet and ceramic. A dexterous handler of both, Holly brings these two materials into harmony. The objects she creates are yarn-and-clay hybrids: hard, fired clay is pierced and shaped to allow the weaving-in of natural fibres, which in turn drape, hang, suspend or wrap the ceramic.

Working in her Fremantle studio, Holly appropriates natural forms like teeth, quills, spines and thorns, nestling them among gentler, softer textures and voluptuously rounded surfaces. These are crafted by hand in great numbers, a labour of long duration and meditative repetitiveness, the evidence of which can be traced in subtly-impressed fingerprints captured on the ceramic surface. The resulting sculptural objects have a whimsical, creature-like presence; their playful and defensive structures seem to repel and beguile us in equal measure.

Holly developed her approach throughout the course of a double Bachelor in Fine Arts and Art & Design at Curtin University, a number of group exhibitions and in her significant solo exhibition Elusive Tactility at Paper Mountain. A major 2017 residency with Art Ichol in India, and several years working as Fremantle Arts Centre’s indispensable kiln technician, have further refined her keen sensibility for the properties of clay.

Holly is one of WA’s most innovative and ambitious crochet practitioners. Her flamboyant, large-scale hanging installations were curated into Vancouver Arts Centre’s Story of Wool landmark exhibition and in submarine form, in Animaze, curated by Ric Spencer.

Holly O’Meehan welcomes commissions, and regularly delivers workshops.

You can find Holly’s work online via her links below, and at the following outlets/gallery shops ::

• Paper Mountain‘s soon to launch online store, the “Bedroom Mountain Shop”
• The Butter Factory Studio in Denmark in the south-west of WA.