Home Bound
Home Bound by Daniel Kok & Luke George is a durational performance-installation lasting two weeks, in which diverse rope materials and practices are woven together to create a vast social tapestry. Members of different communities - who might not ordinarily share the same space - come together to collaboratively build a large-scale rope installation, while others witness the unfolding processes of labour, connection, and site-specific responsiveness.
Throughout the process, local craft specialists, community groups, and members of the public are invited to weave their materials, skills, stories, and histories through a series of workshops and activities held on site - where the labour of building this massive social tapestry unfolds.
As the fibres intertwine, Home Bound performs a choreography of knots that embodies social entanglement - reflecting dialogue, the negotiation of difference, and a commitment to co-existence.
You’re invited to get involved by donating materials, observing the process, or participating in workshops to help build the tapestry yourself.
CREDITS
Lead Artists
Daniel Kok & Luke George
Management and Distribution
Something Great
Home Bound was originally commissioned and presented by Asia TOPA and Arts Centre Melbourne in 2025 as part of the Betty Amsden Participation Program — a series of large-scale public works designed to engage diverse communities, break down cultural and economic barriers, and inspire civic pride and participation.
Over 15 days in Melbourne/Naarm, Home Bound brought together thousands of people in the shared labour of ropework and storytelling. The project engaged more than 300,000 audience members, with over 13,000 people participating directly in its making.
Creative Producer (Asia TOPA)
Nisha Madhan
Associate Project Producer
Jennifer Ma
Community Coordinators
Aamer Ahmed, Julia Croft
Associate Producers (Asia TOPA)
Arie Glorie, Remi Roehrs
Production Manager
Emily O’Brien
Production Manager (Asia TOPA)
Gene Hedley
Associate Production Manager & Site Manager Sam Cole
Production Coordinator
Angus McLean
Rigging
Element Rigging
Industrial Designer
Wil Dim
Lighting Designer
Katie Sfetkidis
Sound Designer
Nick Roux
First Nations Consultant
Dr Kimba Thompson
Artists and Communities Involved
Andrew ChanAmber Lucy
Ash Snare and Rope Dojo Melbourne
Blu Jay
Carolyn Cardinet
Chaco Kato
Cristal No.5
Daniel Kok
Dr Kimba Thompson
Dr Vicki Couzens
Gianne Gatchalian
Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria
Jareen Wee
Julai
Lisa Couzens
Luke George
MaggZ
Muhubo Suleiman and Qaymi Arts & Crafts
Nasteho Said and Dancers
Nikki Tarling
Nupurasa
One Fell Swoop Circus
Richmond Scouts and Venturers
Rosa Vasseghi and the Ava Tapestry Group
Sarah Aiken
Tarryn Love
Yu Fang Chi
And the many individuals and groups across Melbourne who donated more than 2 tonnes of ropes and fibres to make Home Bound possible.
PRESS
“Arriving at the main venue, the Arts Centre Melbourne — easily identifiable by its towering spire — festivalgoers were greeted by a sprawling installation across the forecourt, impossible to miss. Like a counter-monument emerging from the concrete, the durational installation Home Bound offered an alternative spire — not forged in steel and ambition, but knotted in care, labor, and collective presence.
Collaborators Daniel Kok and Luke George, known for their sustained cross-regional practice, reimagined its architecture as something to be entangled with. Through workshops led by textile artists, members of the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, and local community leaders, a reticulated, open dialogue was spun into motion, and the public invited to join. Over the course of the festival, Home Bound choreographed a civic slow burn: thread by thread, story by story, a luminous web of social complexity unfolding in public space.
Compared with earlier works by George and Kok, which often staged rope and bondage practices through registers of risk and consensual precarity, Home Bound shifted emphasis toward a quieter, more absorptive form of relational politics. In that sense, it echoed the festival’s broader programmatic tone: less a space of struggle than one of invitation.”
— Freda Fiala for Artforum
Collaborators Daniel Kok and Luke George, known for their sustained cross-regional practice, reimagined its architecture as something to be entangled with. Through workshops led by textile artists, members of the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, and local community leaders, a reticulated, open dialogue was spun into motion, and the public invited to join. Over the course of the festival, Home Bound choreographed a civic slow burn: thread by thread, story by story, a luminous web of social complexity unfolding in public space.
Compared with earlier works by George and Kok, which often staged rope and bondage practices through registers of risk and consensual precarity, Home Bound shifted emphasis toward a quieter, more absorptive form of relational politics. In that sense, it echoed the festival’s broader programmatic tone: less a space of struggle than one of invitation.”
— Freda Fiala for Artforum