_{Cover Image: Whiskey & Boots, Leave the Light On, 2026. Image by Daniel Grant.}

Until 1 November, Midland Junction Arts Centre (MJAC) is hosting a trio of introspective exhibitions featuring Western Australian artists. Together, the shows offer thoughtful responses to some of life’s biggest questions, weaving through ideas of home, identity and belonging.

What Price Comfort? by Margery Goodall opens the series with objects that are bright, unusual and purposeful. A prize-winning Western Australian textile artist, Goodall has recently expanded her practice beyond traditional media to incorporate waste materials. By weaving and assembling objects commonly treated as refuse, the exhibition asks whether our individual wants are worth the cost to the planet.

One of the exhibition’s most striking works is Angels of Indulgence (2026), made by intertwining metal muselets from champagne bottles into what Goodall calls a “comfort blanket”. The repeated, intricate texture has the feel of high fashion, pairing contemporary chic with a searching question: what potential lies beyond human greed?

Coffee Culture #1 (2026) is another of Goodall’s “comfort blankets”, this time woven from discarded coffee cups as if they were fabric. Where Angels of Indulgence is chic, Coffee Culture #1 feels domestic and homely, its bright colours and geometric pattern recalling a handmade quilt. The work deftly contrasts the ease of consumption with the burden of waste.

In the adjoining room, Ravel explores the many ways textiles can express artists’ personal mythologies. This September, MJAC is hosting the Australian Lace Guild’s National Conference. To mark the occasion, curator Jess Knight invited seven Australian artists to respond to the question: “How do we unravel the many threads that create identity?”

Maggie Hensel-Brown’s three lace works are as innovative as they are delicate, presenting identity as complex, tactile, evolving and full of tension. Using flesh-toned needle lace made from silk thread, Hensel-Brown meticulously depicts fabric in three states of movement: twisted, knotted and ruffled. Like small bodies, the works – including Twist (2025) – appear as extensions of the artist herself.

Eva Fernandez’s Renegade Women is a bold yet poignant homage to women’s identity, inspired by her postdoctoral research. Across the series, Fernandez embellishes six early 20th-century photographs of Spanish women with beaded words and motifs, capturing both the triumph of women’s suffrage and the pain of erasure. You are a renegade of your homeland – Eres una renega de tu patria, a giclée fine-art print decorated with glass beads, is particularly devastating. Beneath the solemn black-and-white portrait, the words convey both pride and a harsh truth: the woman’s hard-won identity is not yet welcomed by her country.

Finally, in MJAC’s Project Room, multi-award-winning performance artists Whisky and Boots present Leave the Light On: Stories About HOME, a warm, intimate and interactive work inviting audiences to consider what home means to them. Producers Georgia King and Mark Storen have extended their 2025–26 residency to deliver the immersive installation. Working with narrative therapist Sudha Coutinho, King and Storen have recorded stories of home and homelessness from people living in Midland and the surrounding area.

The installation is simple but effective. Recorded stories play in a darkened space alongside illustrations by Daniel Grant. Letters from past visitors about their ideas of home are pegged to ropes along the walls, while newcomers are invited to write their own and place it in a nearby postbox. Warm light spills from beneath the box, lending the experience a cosy, nostalgic atmosphere. Reflecting on home can be confronting and painful, but it can also be necessary for growth. Through Leave the Light On, Whisky and Boots have created a deeply human space in which audiences can connect and reminisce.

MJAC has consistently shown itself to be a venue that chooses exhibitions with heart. What Price Comfort?, Ravel and Leave the Light On ask us to slow down and look closely at our relationships with ourselves, one another and the world around us. These three exhibitions are well worth the visit.

Midland Junction Arts Centre