Sienna Tori Barton

Pretend Basket

2023 Mixed media 15.5 cm x 14 cm

Sienna Barton is a Naarm-based painter and textile artist. Graduating from the MFA program at RMIT University in 2022, her artistic practice is obsessive and time-consuming. Often serving as a means of soothing fidgety fingers, her work seeks to transform anxious energy into tangible works of art. Her textile works utilise discarded materials from local clothing labels and her own wardrobe, while others are collected by her grandparents during their weekly trips to the op shop. This diptych seeks to explore the relationship between craft and “women’s work”, the value of replicas, and the hierarchy of craft and high-art. Using thousands of hand-sewn seed beads, Pretend Basket is far more valuable than the work it’s imitating.