Craft / Edge of Presence by Brenda Page and Reclamation by Jessika Spencer, Craft + Design Canberra, until July 18. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

The exhibition by Brenda Page, Edge of Prescence, includes faint, enigmatic images partially filling empty space of glass forms. I found them a little unsettling, as though I was a voyeur. Several of the images are close-ups of faces: both older and young.

Other images hint at an empty domestic space. In Holding Light the light shines from – or is it into? – a doorway and a window; in What Remains an empty chair lies in wait for someone to sit on it. Are these from an old cottage in the countryside? The forms are large, funnels, thick circular flat discs and bottles. Only one work,  Thicket, has colour, in which a child is seen through marks and lines. A hint of colour can be seen in one corner of Dawn, where a child can be seen standing on a small jetty.

The faces and figures are anonymous;  there is no hint of their relation to each other, or the other images.

The simple glass forms carry the images well and convey a sense of the weight of their burden.

The second large exhibition is Reclamation by Wiradjuri artist Jessika Spencer. It continues a journey the artist is taking through indigenous feminine knowledge systems and material practice.

On exhibit are a range of forms and techniques of weaving, dyeing and stitching all in natural materials. While many of the objects, coolamons, dilly bags and water carriers, are based in traditional and functional forms, they show a new way of being seen, reclaiming them.

I particularly enjoyed the Water Carriers of stitched Bangalow palms, neatly finished with blanket stitch around the upper edges. These exhibits are women’s objects used for practical purposes as well as adornment. The river reed necklaces fall on the wall, evoking the water in which they grew. However, the exhibition lacked cohesion.

Two other smaller exhibitions are also being shown. Veins of Air by glass artist Akie Haga in what is known as the Crucible, in the entrance to Craft + Design Haga’s work asks us to consider the way air moves in a space. Even though we cannot see it, air can be perceived through the subtle movements of forms. These are delicate, gentle installations created from close observation of the way air can be understood, if unseen.

Loop, Hook, Loom by Sophia Cai in celebration of the launch of the book of the same name is seen in the Atrium. The book is a collection of textile art works made with yarns and threads in a variety of techniques and the exhibition includes several pieces that feature in it.

These four exhibitions are a great way to see what is happening in the world of craft in the ACT right now.