Radiant have been supplying our Thermasheet tile backer board to our network of merchants nationally for years. One niche industry that have readily adopted this product are the Mosaicking world.
ThermaSheet boards provide a strong, waterproof, long-lasting substrate for mosaic decoration. Our boards are suitable for covering in tiles or over-the-top tesserae! An ideal substrate for thin bed tiling on walls and floors or even render finishes!
The Thermasheet boards are of high performance, waterproof extruded polystyrene, faced with fibreglass mesh embedded into a cement polymer mortar on each side, which adds extra strength and rigidity to the board.
So, when approached by the National coordinator for the Mosiac For Afghan Woman project, we were delighted to be able to donate our boards.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
Thank you sooo much for your generosity! All the mosaics have been created now and we have had some amazing openings! I thank you on behalf of all the makers around Australia.
I am so grateful for your assistance with the Thermasheet. It has enabled us to make lightweight substrates for the mosaics. I have learnt a lot in the process.
The opening of the NSW mosaic will be on 21 October at the National Glass Museum in Wagga Wagga with other exhibits for the International Year of Glass.
- Kristin Wohlers, National coordinator for Mosaic For Afghan Women Australia/ IYOG22
Media release - Mosaic for Afghan Women
A giant handmade glass mosaic scarf will be unveiled next week by South Australian artists as part of international project to support Afghan women and girls.
The Hanging by a Thread, project is backed by the UN International Year of Glass (UNIYOG22) and involves over 1200 mosaic artists from 46 other countries. Each have made segments of 10
x 25 cm in glass mosaic.
“Ultimately, this international collective work will represent the resilience of Afghan culture beyond its own borders,” says Kristin Wohlers, mosaic artist from Angaston, and one of the Australian coordinators.
“Afghan culture survives to remind us that our own freedom is also hanging by a thread,”
“Behishta Anwar and Mursal Jamshedi from the South Australian Afghan Culture Association are our Afghan representatives and have acted as cultural advisors during workshops here in South Australia” says Kristin.
Afghanistan is a diverse country with 34 provinces and over fourteen (14) ethnic groups who each have their own traditional outfits. Traditional dresses are beautiful and colourful, they feature intricate patterns, rich colours, gold embroidery, they are all emblematic of Afghan culture.
The Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand have teamed up with the international collaborators to bring the project to life in the region. There will be seven scarves weaving through six Australian states and New Zealand in 2022 and 2023 culminating in an exhibition in Canberra.
Japan started its exhibition in June and Canada, United States, UK, France, Middle East, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain and South America will follow in the next months.
Scarves have also been made and exhibitions planned for NSW, WA, Tasmania, Victoria, QLD and New Zealand.
Background
Since August 2021, the Taliban have regained control of Afghanistan, leaving Afghan women and girls once again faced with the Taliban interpretation of Islamic law. They face many forms
of violence, including physical violence, they are deprived of education, work and their human dignity hangs by a thread. Testifying to a radical cultural backward movement, art, poetry,
music, and colourful clothing have been banned since the return of the Taliban.
Initiated by Bady Essid Jaballah from Tunisia, the art concept took shape under the art director Madeleine Turgeon from Canada while Tamara Froud from the British Association for Modern Mosaic (BAMM) is working with a group of 15 international collaborators.
The United Nations International Year of Glass 2022 (UNIYOG22) is supporting this project around the globe. Australian and New Zealand’s ‘Mosaic for Afghan Women’ project is registered with the UNIYOG22 (UN 142) and a seed-funding granted as well as generous sponsorship from Radiant Australia, of Western Australia and Mapei International which enabled the artists to create the scarves.
