• last year
The new UTAS River's Edge building is host to the textile art of Michael Kay. He shares his unusual road to art with Duncan Bailey. Video Rod Thompson.
Transcript
00:00 I was in Melbourne and I was a classical percussionist there and got the job as the principal percussionist
00:12 of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
00:14 So I came down here and this was kind of like an interest and then the balance changed.
00:22 So I'm still a musician but yeah, the textiles took over.
00:28 Have you always worked with textiles and fabric?
00:31 Yes, I've had an interest like way back as a kid.
00:36 If I'd need anything fixing my mum would go, "This is how you do it once and now you do
00:42 it, you fix your zip, you do your..."
00:46 And being at college over there I can remember getting into knitting and we'd go on tour
00:51 and I'd pass this thing around to all the other students and we'd all be sitting there
00:55 making this giant...
00:56 So yeah, there's been an interest all the way through.
00:59 So being introduced to sewing from your mum kind of spurred that on?
01:02 Yeah, it did.
01:03 I remember all my mates, I think there was a thing in the Women's Weekly which was how
01:11 to make a hood out of a blanket.
01:13 So I made all these, so we were all like something out of Lord of the Rings or whatever with
01:19 our hoods on.
01:21 So yeah, there's always been an interest in textiles in one form but yeah, it turned into
01:26 my main whatever in the end.
01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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