Ecstatic Threads brings together a dynamic new series of paintings by Rae Haynes that continue their ongoing investigation into the rich intersections of textiles and painting, and the historically gendered ways these practices have been interpreted. 

This body of work marks a return to painterly ideas that have occupied the artist since the early stages of their practice: the relationship between limits and excess, order and abandon, structure and sensation. Revisiting these concerns through the lens of genderqueer abstraction, Haynes embraces exuberance, pleasure and intensity, deploying radiant colour, rhythmic pattern and optical vibration to create works that pulse with joyful energy.

The paintings weave together multiple art historical lineages. Echoes of Marlow Moss and Agnes Martin’s geometric precision sit alongside the luminous chromatic relationships of Sonia Delaunay and the perceptual dynamism of Bridget Riley. Yet Haynes does not simply reference these precedents; they are threaded through a distinctive visual language, producing works that are at once disciplined and excessive, contemplative and sensuous.

In Ecstatic Threads, painting becomes a space of connection, transformation and joy, where historical influences, material traditions and genderqueer possibilities intertwine in shimmering, expansive fields of colour and form.

---

---

PRESENTATION: Subversive Threads

---

SOLO EXHIBITION – NEW WORK!

www.outerspacebrisbane.org

Subversive Threads is a new solo exhibition by artist Rae Haynes, presented at Outer Space. Known for a contemporary feminist practice that interrogates gender ethics and the language of abstraction through text-based works, textiles, and installation, Haynes brings together personal history and political inquiry in this exhibition.

The work emerges from Haynes’ research into the legacies of embroidery in feminist art, particularly through the lens of Rozsika Parker’s seminal text The Subversive Stitch (1984). This inquiry led to the discovery of genealogical connections to Mary Linwood (1755–1845), a pioneering British textile artist and educator renowned for her ‘needle painting’ technique and public exhibitions in 19th-century London. Further archival investigation revealed that in the 1890s, Haynes’ ancestors Claudia and Ada Hull established Linwood College in Bulanaming/Marrickville, named in honour of Mary Linwood.

Through feminist, genderqueer, and decolonial methodologies, Haynes explores these familial and creative legacies via archival research. The project reframes embroidery as both a personal and political tool of resistance.

---

---