It is physical engagement, where the making and the resultant artwork are embedded in each other. The act of making is an interaction between the body and materials, the body and space, the body and other bodies. The method of making and the material used are informed by the conceptual idea, but then the idea becomes moulded through the experience of working with the material whether it be live and animated (people) or inanimate.
To allow for one experience to inform and direct the next, it is slow. The sense that practising something to become better, also plays a role in the approach: doing the same thing over and over again, I learn more, go deeper, and discover new things. It is a physical working allowing learning and discovery to occur through all the senses.
Materials and methods of making are explored and selected through story, connections and connotations. My first foray in this field was through an exploration of a parkland in suburban Melbourne, ‘100 Acres‘. In this instance I was drawn into the history of the site; which had since settlement been farmed as fruit orchards, used by the army as a training ground, provided a race track for a car rally, and finally acquired and preserved as parkland through a local community group’s appeal to the Federal Government.
The resultant work entitled ‘Title Blanket‘ is paper made from native grasses and printed with title documents ‘ownership’. Felt pouches are the result of road kill and pay homage to the kangaroo, while the basket weaving belongs to the women and land of Arnhem Land.
My practice is based on an understanding of humans as part of a whole, the individual within the collective, and the human amongst the non human. I am interested in using organic materials and craft based processes to create a space of exchange, where the senses are enlisted in a layered experience to uncover stories that speak of emotional and visceral experiences of land and place. Recently focus has been on animals, particularly the kangaroo and its relationship to Australia and birds. Looking at ways in which the human experience can learn from other species and how they adapt and survive in a changing environment.
