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“Amanyi” (translates directly to “power” from Luganda) by Ree, from Submerged 2021.

Lauren Mavromati Bourke

Knitwear and Fashion designer

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Lauren Mavromati Bourke is a knitwear and fashion designer whose work portrays lived bodily experiences through the lens of their own personal and cultural experiences. Lauren reflects themes of trans-generational trauma, gendered trauma, and the ongoing effects of colonialism, as well as aiming to speak to wider embodied experiences. They also take an intersectional approach, focusing on queer, woman and gender-diverse gazes.

By focusing on knit, one of the textile practices that are passed down generationally among women as a way of communicating, these pieces reflect how transgenerational trauma is expressed through transgenerational cultural practice. These pieces also speak to the growing intention of exploring the therapeutic benefits of textile-based handicrafts. Lauren’s practice ultimately aims to actively create space away from confining heteropatriarchal and binary discourses, to instead offer marginalised bodies pieces they can wear and interact with, bringing garments into their own context, stretching each piece to meet their evolving needs and bodies.

Lauren Mavromati Bourke, courtesy the creative.

Artworks

An Island Praying is its Own Deliverance by Lauren Mavromati Bourke

Lauren Mavromati Bourke

"An Island Praying is its Own Deliverance invites you to glimpse a sanctuary that a group of individuals inhabit. The short film is inspired by my grad collection of knitwear. These garments draw on generational textile practices and explore how these textile-based handicrafts are passed down across generations as a way to communicate and to express transgenerational trauma. I have always been interested in how different communities carve out space to express ourselves, and simultaneously the therapeutic benefits of these cultural practices. For this piece, Senuri and I went back to the beginning of time, and reflected on how religious and mythological figures in our own cultural histories created space away from confining ideologies for their safety and self-expression. In recalling stories of women escaping gendered trauma by calling on greater powers than themselves to become their surroundings, I reflected on how these collective memories of seeking refuge in nature have shaped communities on the margins. The Island emerges when we imagine queer sanctuary, shielded from colonial cis- and heteronormative gazes. The knits are intended to be worn in this utopian way only -- rather than reflecting the transgenerational patterns of trauma that such practice is borne out of, the knitted garments are for queer communities of colour to wear as they move, dance and stretch."

MAV has a profound commitment to arts and artists shaping the narratives that define who we are as a multicultural nation.

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With the deepest respect MAV acknowledges that we live, work and celebrate on unceded Aboriginal land. We thank all Elders, past and present, for their care, knowledge and generosity, as custodians of the world’s oldest continuing culture. We pledge our support towards truth telling, reparation and decolonisation. We open our hearts and minds to deep listening, learning, sharing and connecting – in solidarity with First Peoples here in Australia and around the world.