Undulations, 2022
At the end of 2021, Artspace Mackay (Mackay, QLD) offered me an opportunity to be apart of their Wall Project Residency program. I was given creative control to design a wall installation in a medium of my choosing, referencing the aesthetics and conceptual development of my existing arts practice. I decided to challenge myself with developing a design for my first painted mural. Although printmaking is my prominent practice, I wanted to see how my works would translate in the painted medium, a similar approach to how I have combined my style with interior furnishings, metals and fabric in the past.
The design for this 6 x 17m mural is derived from a relief-print created at the beginning of 2022. I worked on a block that was smaller size ratio to realise the rhythm of my carved imagery within the gallery space.
My mural, Undulations was exhibited in the Main Foyer Gallery from 5 April - 22 June 2022 at Artspace Mackay.
Artspace Mackay Residency
Images: Undulations mural at Artspace Mackay QLD. Photo: Jim Cullen. Courtesy of Artspace Mackay.
Undulations, 2022.
Wall mural - low sheen interior paint, 600 x 1700cm.
Undulations, 2022.
Vinyl-cut on Hahnemühle paper with hand coloured watercolour.
Paper size: 50.5 x 144cm. Edition of 10.
Throughout my creative practice I have often been intrigued by the complexities of nature, focusing on the minute areas of flora that tend to go unnoticed. Drawing on the repetitive mark-making techniques of vinyl-cut carving, Undulations explores native and introduced plant life from the Southeast Queensland and Mackay regions, heroing the Australian Lemon Myrtle and Mount Blackwood Holly. The small nature of these plants is amplified, brought to the foreground to be celebrated and experienced by the viewer, while remaining connected to the diversity and organic complexity of Queensland’s coastal landscape. The rhythm of these carved lines undulates across the length of the artwork, capturing the expansive nature of our environment that is constantly changing and evolving into something new.
Undulations has been acquired by the Artspace Mackay collection and was awarded Highly Commended at the Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2022.
Photo: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.
Image: Undulations mural. Photo: Courtesy of Artspace Mackay.