My practice centres around explorations of layers of history and intergenerational connections. I’m particularly focused on the common threads that connect generations such as shared interests, traits, and dispositions. My ancestors and their creative practices, both domestic and industrial, have been a source of inspiration. They have played a major role in nurturing, supporting, and resourcing my artistic interests and guiding my artistic directions. I also reflect on my ancestors’ general qualities and roles they have taken across the various facets of life. They were practical and resilient people. Though it is visually transparent, glass is a physical barrier to my reach into the past. The reflections and refractions of glass run parallel to my experience of working with notions of intergenerationality. My art is a response to grieving and remembering. In this project I have taken an autoethnographic approach to considering my artistic practice and reference the various selves I bring to the work.
"I see me through you"
Engraved glass, copper and brass (detail)
"Label of love"
“Label of love” is a reflection on the roles and traits of my ancestors, and how they have shaped me and my creative practice. I often reflect on my maternal grandparents; my grandfather a screenprinter, my grandmother a dressmaker by trade. Both were very busy people and had an inherent desire, and need, to make. Sometimes it feels that all my creative roads lead back to them and those who came before (the makers, writers, travellers, providers and so on). This project has allowed me to categorise and make sense of my thoughts as I sift through a mass of family ephemera, or ‘detritus of life’.
In the spirit of reconciliation Monash University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
