I can finally announce my new solo exhibition Arborea, to be held at the Painted Tree Gallery in Northcliffe, Southern Forest Arts, between 20 May and 25 June 2023. The exhibition will also show at Pantechnica Gallery during the 2023 York Festival 21 September - 1 October 2023.
Arborea is an exhibition of sculpture, jewellery and poetry, and explores the world’s forests through precious jewellery and sculptures.
Considering a ‘deep time’ perspective, the anthropocene is evoked through the two movements: a first by use of fossils and rocks and other formations developed over millions of years incorporating the shape of trees; a second movement by presenting life forms of today rendered vulnerable by human settlement. From the magnificent forests of South Western Australia to the expansive and increasingly barren grazing and agricultural fields of the Wheatbelt, we are struck by climate anxiety and grief over loss of habitat. Weather turns into storm. Fire turns to devastation. The introduction of sculptures created through corrosion casting brings an innovative visual element and point of reflection: a sheep’s head’s vasculature and airways raise questions about how we connect with the natural world we claim to know. The exhibition situates our precious Western Australian fauna and flora amidst other parts of the world, where forest dwelling species lose their habitats. We meet primates, as forest dwellers or medical research facilitators, and imagine us humans as agents of change or extinction as we threaten to halt this vibrant pulse of life that makes our planet a living marvel.
In this exhibition I present new jewellery and sculptures in precious metals, along with corrosion castings by Dr Christophe Casteleyn, Animal Mortphology Museum, University of Ghent and my own corrosion casting work created during my residency at the Minderoo Exmouth Research Lab (MERL).
Many thanks to Southern Forest Arts, The Minderoo Foundation and York Festival.
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