Megan Brady, A piece from ‘A quiet corner where we can talk’, 2018

Megan Brady
A piece from ‘A quiet corner where we can talk’, 2018
handtufted wool, latex backing, wool binding
410 x 920mm
commissioned by Dunedin Public Art Gallery

These rugs were created for Megan Brady’s A quiet corner where we can talk, commissioned by Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2018. The pattern is designed with a birds-eye-view of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s spatial layout, and the work imagines a hypothetical conversation between composer John Cage and the founder of ‘furniture music’ (background music) Erik Satie. With the aid of an electric hand tufting gun, Brady spent months handcrafting a carpet that fills the entire gallery space—a direct, laborious and physically demanding engagement with both materials and process. A quiet corner where we can talk injects a sense of value and care into something that is seemingly banal—it is hand-made, a one-off, imperfectly perfect and heavy with Brady’s labour and time.

Brady has been included in two shows at The Physics Room: Dead Reckoning, 2019, with Oliver Perkins, and Te Ha, 2023, curated by Taniora Tamati-Rakete.

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Megan Brady (Kāi Tahu, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Pākehā) is an artist currently based in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Working across sculpture, installation and sound, she is particularly interested in the way we navigate sites—often responding to patterns and details in the environment. Selected recent exhibitions include Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna Waiwhetū, 2023; At Home, Te Ara Ātea, 2023; Te Hā, The Physics Room, 2023; Paemanu: Tauraka Toi, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2021-22; Lay in measures with Ed Ritchie, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, 2020; and A quiet corner where we can talk, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2018.