Artist Statement

My practice is multidisciplinary working with textiles, etching, and photography, often in combination. Seductive and feminine the imagery of delicate landscapes and laces is overlaid on the imperfections of the body, it’s flesh and warmth, creating a new girly wilderness. Attachment to place is an ongoing theme that I have explored in my work through the depiction of landscapes using craft techniques. The subjectivity of landscape art is highlighted by using my body to display and engage with the works.

Exquisitely detailed etched landscapes emphasise naturalistic and historic views of wilderness spaces. The greyscale palette and traditional media give a sense of authenticity and documentary truth that is broken by the very personal form of underwear. I’m interested in how art and craft transform place into home, creating an intimacy of space.

The landscape images are sewn up, scaled, and shaped by the body, making its presence or absence strongly felt. The sculptures embrace the seductive qualities of lingerie and the eroticism of it being tossed aside after stripping off the body. The lingerie emphasizes the interface of skin and the world, being the first layer in contact with the body. The first layer to conceal or reveal.

The photographs document the garments as worn, a flimsy layer between the artist and the land.  My hands stretch and crumple the garments, dressing and undressing, making the landscape shift and distort, illustrating the permeability of the relationship to place.

Recent botanical works cut from kangaroo leather distill the landscape into the purely decorative. The curl of the leather is unrestrained, maintaining a relationship to the body that was underneath. The intricately cut pattern is reminiscent of lace and doilies, decorative items reminiscent of domestic ideals. Sitting just off the wall the works cast complex shadows, abstracting and confusing the shapes, letting the viewer see through the skin.