At the beginning of this year I was invited to create an artwork on a hi-vis vest, for an advertising campaign for the Department of Transport in Victoria. I was understandably intrigued by the idea! The aim of the campaign was to use empathy to reduce aggression toward transport staff. The idea behind the campaign was to take a garment that protects workers physically and turn it into one that protects them mentally, by sharing the essence and humanity of the workers.

There is no armour against words, but we can disarm people from being disrespectful or rude to begin with through empathy and connection.
Using a garment naturally designed to protect people as they work, we turned high-vis vests into a canvas showing the personal stories of four of our transport workers. These 'safety vests' allow people to see the humanity first, and the job second.

I was one of four artists invited to create a textile artwork on a vest. Each of us were paired with a transport worker. I was briefed on Dennis.

This vest incorporates my signature piecework process of hand-stitching together hundreds of tiny bits of fabric, like a fabric jigsaw puzzle. Many of the fabrics are hand-dyed. The vest has also been hand-painted, and the layers stitched together with the sewing machine.

I loved Dennis’s stories about camping trips. As a mother of six, I know how good it is to go camping together! I especially loved that Dennis and his family have a ‘craziest camper award - how fun!

In my design, I focussed one side of the vest on the challenge of juggling work and a busy family life, while the other side was used to focus on the joy of weekend camping getaways.