Flying over Moreton Bay, Queensland, I am stunned by the unique beauty and strangeness of island forms that float on a shallow ‘bath’ of sub-tropical water. This is Quandamooka – land and sea of traditional custodians.
There are structures embedded even in these wild places: patchworks of land, fences, roads. The colours, glimmer of the water and the luminosity of the sand are striking, but it is the flatness of the highly textured scrubby surfaces that physically define these islands and draw me in to look more deeply.
My wearable landscapes reference these elements. I exploit the two-dimensional qualities by drawing with my saw and I also honour the brooch form by bringing a third dimension to the shapes using the hydraulic press. Shadows and reflections are designed to draw in the eye and invite the viewer to engage in and around the work as stand alone sculptures.
