From Where She Stands, 2025
By Common Threads Collective
Common Threads Collective brings together five women artists: Rafaela Mori, Katherine Butcher, Jo Mellor, Jackelyn Bickell and Maryellen van der Vegt, exploring textile-based practices framed by co-creation and sustainability.
From Where She Stands is an immersive and dynamic installation experience, created using unwanted textiles from the commercial sector showcasing a diverse range of practices including painting, stitching, weaving and crochet. This exhibition engages with low-impact, 100% repurposed materials and artistic collaboration to express a perspective of the world and personal seasons of life from the place where each artist stands. The Collective revisits forgotten works, revitalises neglected resources and shares skills to make sustainability both a creative method and a means to convey a commitment to community and a sense of belonging.
Layers, 2022
Acrylic on perspex, 24" x 65" each panel.
“Layers” is a work that aims to portray Rafaela’s understanding of her own identity through painting.
Thinking about her story, she realised that her identity was created (and is being created) in layers; marked by changes.
She has painted different landscapes where she has lived on transparent pieces so that these realities can be merged. Each painting is an experience that has shaped her.
Since she was a child, she has lived in different cities and countries. This “nomadic” life has created a lack of constancy in social spaces that usually help build an individual's identity and sense of belonging. This trajectory sparked her interest in being an artist.