Painting

Based on the many photographs of my family’s lengthy camping journeys across Australia, from my early childhood until our most recent trip in 2022, my body of work investigates places visited, with my family members as figures in the landscape. My intention was to represent experiences from our journeys as well as the sense of memory, as these experiences have been instrumental in my growth towards adulthood. I have had to develop real confidence with mark making, using a palette knife or soft brush and lots of water to convey, with a few strokes, textures and forms in the landscape.

Foreign Familiarity examines how the places and things we view in our childhood change as we grow up. Inspired by my childhood in Singapore, it is a nostalgic representation of the innocence of childhood and my loss of culture and memories in moving to Australia. I used bold, dynamic colours for the buildings and as a base, under the lighter tones of the sky and roads, with the intention of conveying the feeling of childhood brightness masked by our older perceptions of familiar landscapes. My body of work references Singaporean scenery but distorts it to communicate this change in viewpoint.

My body of work examines the pervasive disconnect between humanity and nature that underscores our digital age. Through my work’s digital medium I have represented a glitch that seems to sweep away the landscape to reveal the underlying hex code. My work subverts the Romantic traditions of Australian landscape painting, conveying the inescapable presence of technology as it infiltrates even a medium inherently opposed to it. By juxtaposing the appearance of traditional texture and brushwork in the painting with digital distortion algorithms, such as pixel sorting, which fragment and dissolve this natural landscape, I communicate our disintegrating connection with nature.

Each room in an abandoned house is a fragment of memory, holding the sense of loss and longing that permeates spaces once filled with life. Residual Rooms is a body of work that examines the lingering presence of past lives and experiences within domestic spaces. By painting interior scenes onto found objects, my intention was to convey the emotional residue left behind in spaces that were once inhabited, loved and lived in. The found objects carry their own histories, and by repurposing them as canvases I combine their physical stories with the imagined narratives of the interiors I represent.

My body of work examines the complex tension between yearning for human connection and fear of the vulnerability that connection demands. My instinct is to retreat from intimacy yet, paradoxically, I find myself longing for the warmth and understanding of others. My work represents this push-and-pull dynamic, acknowledging that while human connection is fraught with misunderstandings and limitations, it remains a deeply rooted desire that shapes who I am and how I navigate the world.

Concrete Bubble examines the monotonous cycle of urban life that we live and move within. My intention in my body of work was to challenge the modern world’s glorification of constant productivity, inviting the audience to recognise the repetitive nature of their own lives. Familiar Sydney transport vehicles are represented in the globes to reinforce this concept; the arrow-shaped street sign motif conveys the one-way journey individuals undertake in their daily lives. The concrete greys of the Sydney metropolis are drenched in blues and punctuated by the ever-present safety yellow, confronting the audience with its familiar presence.

My body of work investigates my move from Germany to Australia when I was three and the excitement of returning to Germany regularly; a profound journey of embracing heritage while forging a new life in a different country. Each piece represents the intertwining of past and present, conveying the essence of cultural identity and the resilient spirit that blossoms in new environments. My intention in Circumnavigating Memories was to examine faded memories of Germany, the ideal expectations many have when coming to Australia, and the reality of its harsh environment.

My body of work consists of approximately 12,500 miniature squares. Together they form a self-portrait. Each ‘pixel’ conveys a tiny part of what makes a person whole: what has been, what will be and everything that could be. Each small piece represents a piece of me that isn’t always visible to an onlooker’s eye. So, to see the big picture, I invite the audience to take the binoculars and look through them backwards. You might need to squint to see it more clearly.