Gillian Bencke lives and works in Newcastle NSW. Gillian’s practice draws attention to social structures and personal agency in a modern world through sculpture, objects and wearable items. Predominantly working in textiles she creates intimate small sculptures, large installation works and collections of embroidered objects that explore the modern complexities of feminism, ethical divergence, political hierarchies and social expectations.
Bencke repurposes materials from offcuts, old clothing, and discarded haberdasheries. She is a careful hoarder of textiles that would otherwise end up in landfill and all of her own offcuts go back into the pieces she makes that require stuffing.
Her work has been exhibited widely in Australia and has taken part in numerous art awards and in 2021 her work 'Cope' won the Wangaratta Textile Art Prize.