Theatre Of The Grotesque No. 4: Can't You Take A Joke?

Artwork is ready to hang - attached with velcro to wood hanger with D-rings and wire

In this series, I have been exploring society’s expectations, and maintaining the status quo.

This piece is particularly personal, and represents phrases said to me by members of my family in my childhood. A nasty comment, followed by ‘just kidding’. No, you’re not kidding, and yes, I *can* take a joke. But to quote The Smiths, ‘that joke isn’t funny anymore – it’s too close to home, and it’s too near the bone’.

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Michelle Driver is a South Australian artist working exclusively in handwoven tapestry. Her practice is grounded in slow labour, repetition, and material discipline, approaching tapestry as a rigorous studio practice rather than a decorative craft.

Her work is shaped by queerness, neurodiversity, and lived experience of trauma, and often draws on gothic aesthetics and unsettling narrative. Through weaving, she explores shadow, memory, and the tension between obedience and refusal, revealing beauty within what is overlooked or difficult to name.

Driver’s work has been recognised nationally, including winning the 2016 Port Pirie Art Prize and inclusion in Radical Textiles at the Art Gallery of South Australia.