Lillian Morrissey (*1986 in Sydney) is a Berlin-based textile artist with a background in political science, journalism and community activism. She holds a BA of International Politics from USYD (2009) and a BA of Fine Arts (Painting) from NAS Sydney (2015). Trained in painting, she turned to the historically feminine craft of embroidered tapestries to sew narrative scenes that often satirically reflect on history and contemporary politics.

Her large textile works draw from and subvert the patriarchal tradition of conquest-narrative mediaeval tapestries such as the Bayeux and Pastrana Tapestries, martial paintings and monuments in classical and imperial western art history.The works combine dye-painting with hand and (hand operated) pistol embroidered yarn and cotton. This time intensive and personal creative process grounds the works in the mythical and historical framework of weaving as a women's record of history.

With works from the current Heroes series, this traditional ‘woman’s’ art form is used to depict scenes of timeless masculine violence in gridded, geometric compositions and decorative elements that allude to patterns from flags, traditional textile ornamentation and coats of arms.

Warriors, soldiers, weapons, monuments, popular narratives of conquest and war: these props are all on stage for the theatre of the ultra-nationalist hyper masculine ideology, identified by feminist political scientist Cynthia Enloe as the phenomenon of ‘militarised masculinity.’ Lillian’s works visually interrogate militarised masculine culture and it's aesthetics, examining the co-dependent relationship between authoritarianism, neo-fascist ideology and politicised masculinity. Her work satirises warrior-hero archetypes, exposing and poking fun at the insecure strongman historical narratives adopted by authoritarian leaders like Putin and militarised alt-right groups such as the Proud Boys.