Yvonne Sloan

She was born in Remuera, Auckland in 1941 and began weaving in the 1960s during her time as an Art and Craft Advisor with the Department of Education. In 1966, Sloan travelled to Sweden where she studied weaving at Sätergläntan.[1][2] Returning to New Zealand, she married weaver Ian Spalding and they established a professional partnership.[1]

Her father Ralph Stanley Sloan had a brief career as a photographer with studios on Queen Street in Auckland, then as a movie theatre manager, however the bulk of his career was in agriculture. Although a strong history of seafaring is mentioned as inspiration for Sloan's Art practice, the family had a documented history of religious ministry and medical practitioners in the immediate family. Other notable members of the family were Sloan's grandfather, surgeon Hugh Rodger Sloan MD, BSc, DPH, Sir Donald McGavin and Lady Mary Allan McGavin, Dr. William Chapple a New Zealand-born British MP, British surgeon Donald Burns McGavin FRACS, and two reverends Thomas McDonald and Leonard Henry Hunt.

In 1983, she became a member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and in 1986 was invited to exhibit in "Kahurangi" for the World Craft Council Conference in Vienna.[3] Between 1998 and 1990, she served on the QEII Arts Council Crafts Advisory Panel.[4]

In 1994, she undertook a residency at Waikato Polytechnic.[1] The following year, she became President of the Auckland Handweavers & Spinners Guild, serving until 1997. From 1996 until 1997, she was also President of the Combined Textile Guilds of NZ.[4] In 1998, she held an exhibition at the Crawford Art Centre in St. Andrews, Scotland, where she created a large-scale work titled Sails, which drew upon concepts of voyaging and the Pacific.[4] In 2000, Sails was installed at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Queens Wharf, Wellington.[4]

Helen Schamroth described Sloan's style in 100 New Zealand Craft Artists, Sloan's weaving is based on traditional twill, and she has developed a system of inlaying motifs that depends on a lively interaction of warp and weft. Her designs are based on balanced colour bands, intersecting diagonals, verticals and horizontals. The structure produces small spots of colour, which react with each other in a manner that resembles pointillism."[1]

Sloan’s Sails holds personal meaning and reflects New Zealand’s pacific heritage, she explained,

“Most of our ancestors have come to New Zealand by sail. Set in the South Pacific we are surrounded by the sea, regardless of one's origin and culture arriving by sail in NZ is historically important...I came from a long line of seafarers, originally from the Orkney Islands and London. This has influenced my perception of the importance of sail and what it represents....Sails are basic and timeless. My sail installations are an interpretation of the shapes, spaces, angles and movement that sails create.”[4]

According to the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, “Sloan has contributed significantly to the acceptance of craft weaving as an art form in New Zealand." [2]

In 1994, she was awarded the Committee Cup at the Auckland Handweavers Guild Exhibition, also winning a Merit Award that year at the Combined Textiles Guild Easter Show. In 1996, she won the Premier Award at the Combined Textiles Guild Easter Show. At the 2001 Easter Show was also won a Merit Award.[4]

Her work is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu and the Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru.[2][4]