Starlie Geikie’s practice archives the past and ruminates on the future. Her work often comprises myriad references to areas including utopian architecture, pagan iconography, feminism and images associated with the 1970s generating both visual and historic dialogues. Most frequently, these references are mediated by the artist’s methodology of reinterpreting craft techniques, such as quilt-making and stitching. Her work questions the implied passivity of such craft associated practices and employs unexpected materials, such as timber, woodstain and leather – often at an ambitious scale – to upend these associations. Geikie’s work explores the psychology embedded in decoration via the opposing constructs of control and beauty. By creating work that displays meticulous and repetitious detailing, Geikie seeks to reflect on the value of time and handmade processes.

Geikie completed a Master of Fine Arts at RMIT, Melbourne in 2002 and has exhibited in artist-run and commercial spaces nationally and internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include Saracens, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2013; If I am not, put me there; If I am, so keep me, Utopian Slumps, Art Forum Berlin, 2010; The Great Alone, Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Gippsland, 2008; Low and Lone, Canberra Contemporary Art Spaces, Canberra, 2008; Open Studio, 18th Street Arts Centre, Los Angeles, 2006 and O Mother, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2002. Group exhibitions include Velites, C3 Art Space, Melbourne, 2014; Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013; Future Visions, curated by Caroline Kennedy McKracken, Divonne les Bains, France, 2012; Reason and Rhyme, curated by Emily Cormack, Charlotte Huddleston and Amita Kirpalani, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, and St Paul St Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2011; Hutchins Art Prize, The Long Gallery, Hobart Tasmania, 2009; The Secret Life of Plants, curated by Andrew Gaynor, Linden Gallery, Melbourne and Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, 2009;  Victory Over the Sun, curated by Melissa Loughnan and Helen Hughes, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2009; Girls Girls Girls, curated by Nat Thomas and Lyndal Walker, Carlton Club, Melbourne, 2008; Starlie Geikie and Lauren Berkowitz, curated by Rebecca Coates, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2008; The Horror of Tradition, curated by John Souza, Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, 2008; and This is the thing I thought would never come, curated by Tony Garifalakis, Bus Gallery, Melbourne, 2006.