Sera Waters is a South 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 Adelaide, Australia. Adelaide Central School of Art uses the atelier model of visual arts ...

Biography

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 had an urban population of a ...

, in 1979. She has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) from the University of South Australia, a Masters of Visual Arts from the University of Adelaide, and a PhD from the University of South Australia. She received the Ruth Tuck Scholarship in 2005 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 lectures in art history at

Artistic style and subject

Waters specialises in

textile arts Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials u ...

and techniques, such as

embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...

. 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. Originating ...

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 Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

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

Awards, residencies and scholarships

* Ruth Tuck Scholarship 2006,

Carclew Carclew House, one of Britain's lost houses, was a large Palladian country house near Mylor in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was situated at approximately three miles north of Falmouth. Carclew House was for some generations owne ...

* Heysen Prize for Landscape, 2016, Hahndorf Academy * The Hill Smith Gallery / University of South Australia Postgraduate Award, 2018,

Helpmann Academy The Helpmann Academy is a unique collaborative partnership, unifying the skills and resources of South Australia’s universities. Since 1994 the Helpmann Academy has been supporting emerging creatives, promoting South Australia as a centre for ex ...

* Finalist, Ramsay Art Prize, 2019,

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 ...

Collections

Art Gallery of South Australia

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

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