about
Making art is a means to explore my relationship to where and how I exist, it is a synonym for exploration. The act of making art has the power to transport me to places previously unknown, while accepting the mystery of the unknown; it connects me to the beginning of the universe and the complexities of nature; it teaches me about what is possible.
Much of my work embraces discussions of grief; while grief is an inescapable and shared human experiences — our ephemerality/ mortality ensures this — my work is most generally about the grief generated by the environmental losses that surround us in our current times from biodiversity loss, to deforestation, to extinction… Those experiences are overwhelming and often overlooked… because of their enormity and or because they are often incremental they are ‘unseen’; I believe that it is important to face the losses and hold the grief in order that we learn what we love and as we do, be transformed into proactively moving to prevent it happening… and of critical importance at this time: to repair what has been damaged.
A dear friend recently said to me ‘art is a framework that holds us while we feel’*… yes it is indeed! It is a framework that holds us while we negotiate the pain of letting go of the old/that which must die, in order to unlearn the old and learn new ways of being and thinking.
* Deborah Redwood
Greer portrait by Joseph Horvat
3 dimensions
My sculptural exploration is one which attempts to achieve a sense of deep knowing of the base principles of my relationship with the earth.
It is an exploration of how physical objects occupy space, and exist in space. As animals we move around in space, it the container for our existence. As humans we create and build spaces to live in and to imagine in.
How much can the act of building physical objects be stripped to base principles?
I explore elemental joining systems, to expose base principles: stacking, wrapping, weaving, leaning, natural tensions… all acknowledging the elemental physical principle of our being — gravity.
I am engrossed with the idea of creating spaces experienced and imagined, macro or micro, and how one shape or group of shapes or idea can embed so many meanings.
I have come to realise that much of the work I create be it freestanding or installation work is a process of creating a ritual space, yes a framework in which one can feel… and as such they are works experienced by being there, rather than being works whose intent survives being photographed.
The materials I use encompass both the natural world and the products of industry, with a vision to use them in a harmony, reciprocity and respect that are lessons for a wider world.
wild-place practice
It is in wild places that I learn about form and function, interactions and possibilities, the mystery of the unknown, it is here I deeply feel connected to the whole.
While in wild places I am sometimes compelled to write or make small ephemeral artworks — these works are a way of connecting with and recognising the cycles of nature over days, seasons or even eons. This wild place practice is like a drawing practice — it is where ideas are formed for studio based works and for poetry.
poetry
Poetry has become an important aspect of my practice — it is a way to see under the surface of things, to use words, the sounds we use so ubiquitously each day as a means to reach deep into who we are and how we are in the world and with the world… and to perhaps facilitate a different perception of the world in myself and my readers/hearers.
2 dimensions
Painting and drawing are a means to explore the perception of viewing; that captured moment of breathless ‘rightness’… just as a journey into the bush will always be wonderful, there will be moments where your field of vision, be if far or near, will be a frame of magical relationships that is so “right” and a shift of that frame to the right or left will dilute the magic.
For me painting and drawing is an exploration of a world of ambiguity and possibilities.
While I have not painted for a long time now, the series of work that I am most likely to return to are the works that explore space and interactions using broad chalky, crusty areas gathered and constrained by rivers of black, it is the spaces between in which an undefinable time or space hovers…. a very sculptural idea.
my surroundings
I am based in the Shoalhaven region on the south coast of NSW, Australia. I have the privilege of living on a 40 acre property, most of which is bush, within the bounds of a designated Nature Reserve, surrounded by wild nature. After many years of travelling to wild places near and far in Australia, I have found that now is the time to stop in one place and to observe and intimately learn its ever-changing wildness.
the environment
My work is rooted in a passion and wonderment of this planet, most especially its still, wild places that are still wild places. Being in wild places restores my being, reminding me that our planet provides us with everything, and despite its abundance it is finite. Regenerative agriculture has become a subject of deep interest for its capacity to restore landscapes as we collaborate, via thoughtful management, with animals in the remaking of diverse landscapes, the regeneration of soils and hence ongoing health for all. By knowing and allowing our own wildness we can manage land with sensitivity, care and humility and by stepping back enough we allow nature to repair herself — she has been practicing for 3 billion years!
All photos on this web site are by me unless noted.
