Installations

         “What’s for dinner?” 2021

‘What’s for dinner?” 2021, finalist for the 2022 National Capital Art Prize.

"What"s for Dinner" is an installation of 71 recycled and repurposed, stainless steel cookware pieces. Painted with portraits, in enamel paint, of my dear friend, author and fantastic cook Eleanor Limprecht. 
A reflection on the constant struggle, as a mother who is also an artist, to scrape any measure of time and energy you can salvage to put towards your WORK. 
To create some floatation device to save you from drowning under the tsunami of dinners, cleaning, organising, shopping, refereeing, driving, juggling, laundry, tears - the mind numbing ground hog day revolutions of things that must be done.  Usually for other people. A recognition that despite the love we bear for family we also cry, laugh, scream, ponder, gnash teeth, wonder, joke as we try to do it all.

”What’s for dinner?” Is of Eleanor but also of all women endlessly facing the question of “What’s for dinner?” Despite it being 2022 women are still the vastly leading majority of people cooking dinner. The sheer lack of sustainable equitable practice stuns me. We all eat  why aren’t we all cooking. Even in families where both parents work full time it is outstandingly women who bear the brunt of domestic duties.

“Inside” 2022

Inside is a work in progress. Ultimately an installation of 2000 suspended knives in the shape of a 4m knife. All the blades on one side bear the painted eyes of an aggressor. On the opposite side of each blade, the painted eyes of a victim. Anger and

Inside came to me as a perfect vision.  All I have to do is create it  like some visions it is very noisy, insistent on being heard. It didn’t take me long to figure out that “Inside” is about addressing the anger and fear we all have inside us. Some of it inherited, some cultivated, some created. Unfortunately we are taught, by consumerist societies, cultural conditioning, social pressures, religion and social media to fear and hate. This makes us easier to control. Some anger and fear is good for us. We should be scared to walk out on a busy road. But. We shouldn’t invest in fears that limit our potential.
  I want to look at that. Own it.  Release it.  If we can evolve out of anger and fear then we can love ourselves. If we can love ourselves we can love each other. 

For this to happen I need 1700 more sharp knives and a gallery/museum happy to work with the unique complexities that exhibiting this work would entail. For donations of knives, money for knives or a space to exhibit please feel free to email me. 

Inner beauty” 2021

'Inner Beauty" is an installation of 2000 handmade clitoris created for the Sculpture Les Refusee at Q Station, Manly.

  In 2020 I saw, for the first time an MRI of a clitoris. A glowing thankyou to Dr Helen O'Connell, Professor, Department of Surgery, at University of Melbourne and the Director of Surgery and Head of Urology at Western Health, Victoria , and the the work of French gynecologists Odile Buisson and Pierre Foldes.                        I was fascinated and shocked. Fascinated by the beauty of a part of me, of every woman. Clitoris look like orchids, like a wishbone or vertebrae. Here was something beautiful, natural. Shocked that as an educated, experienced, well travelled woman of 49 I had never seen one before. Worse...that I had never questioned why I hadn't. Sadly, not that shocked that prior to Dr Helen O'Connel's work there was scant interest on the physicality of female sexuality.

  The MRI makes me feel proud and lovely. Makes me feel more connected to all women. It inspired me to create an artwork to bring this beautiful part of us into the public view. A celebration of our intrinsic beauty  I feel an obligation to share this. To share the connection I feel with all people and our environment. 

The literal mark I chose to make was of a fingerprint. My fingerprint. A sharing of who I am and the connection I bear to all people. 
    As an artist much of my work concerns itself with repetition, pattern making, meditations on nature's patterns. I felt that the fingerprint fitted so well at this particular location at Q Station. A harking to all those, female and male, who had spent time here, before and after European occupation.

A delicate susurration of historical passage. 
    Each clitoris is handmade from polymorph, a biodegradable plastic. My lofty dreams of two foot tall bronze clitoris were transformed into much smaller, plastic counterparts. The whole process and the end result have become much more intimate. Which seems fitting. The installation totals at 17m x 19m at this particular site.

Further Notes
    In the overwhelming onslaught of general (social ,emotional, fiscal) expectations and responsibilities, in the current climate of negative social media and unrealistic body image, during the stress of Covid-19 and lockdowns many of us feel disconnected. We feel alienated. This alienation is born in a society that promotes a sense of entitlement instead of obligation. We are rowing ever further from the shores of ourselves and each other.  I hope "Inner Beauty" is a reminder of the power of our thoughts and deeds, that our choices and actions have on each other, ourselves and our environment. Let us embrace a kinder culture.

 Here again I would like to thank Dr Helen O'Connell whose interest in and championing of the clit and the woeful lack of information we had in that regard has enlightened not only the medical world but also our emotional and social worlds. Thank you. Special thanks to the wonderful Jelena Sinik for tireless assistance in installation, documentation and emotional support and her dad's cheese pastries.

“Float” 2012

'Float' at the Tin Sheds Gallery, Broadway, Sydney. 2000. This exhibition consisted of 16000 white cardboard butterflies over 164 square metres. This exhibition was pivotal in developing my painting style. Utilising small, repetitive motifs to symbolise elemental aspects.

“Books” 2003

Was created in 2003 for a local writer’s festival in Smithfield, Sydney. Made from discarded books and found objects such as toy car wheels. Commissioned by the local council.

“The light within” 2001

 'The Light Within' of 200 handcrafted lotus lights. Exhibited at First Draft Gallery in Surry Hills, 2001. Made from hand manipulated and cut watercolour paper, lights, cable, stands. Each light was on a 1m tall stalk allowing gently movement.