NAVIGATING NECESSITIES
13 March - 5 April 2025
Artist Statement
I started making this body of work during the time my parents were selling my grandparents' old house in the Yarra Valley, east of Melbourne. This place was a constant throughout my life: school holidays spent exploring, and as I grew older, a sanctuary to escape to and reset. Visiting in the years after their passing, I felt the profound contrast between the stillness of the old house and its contents and the ever-changing world around it. Saying goodbye to the property was incredibly difficult.
Among the many memories tied to this place were the rituals of driving the 10 or so hours each way to get there. I became deeply acquainted with, and fond of, particular towns now bypassed on the Hume Highway. Skipping these stops felt incomplete, as if I had left a part of the journey behind.
These works explore the necessity of transitioning from one place to another while longing to linger in the in-between spaces. Many of the works draw from incidental scenes encountered during the past decade of traveling between home and my grandparents' property. Often, I passed these places countless times, stopping only when the light was just right to capture a photo.
By carving these scenes into permanency, I create space to unpack and reflect on the memory of place, symbolising change through depictions of spring and autumn gardens, as well as the surrounding bush landscape. The process allows me to hold onto the ephemeral and transform the fleeting moments and feelings into something tactile, enduring.
As I now reflect on the gap left by the property's absence, I find myself longing for the road again—the spaces in between.