Emerging Talent Awards 2015 - General Entry - Series - weatheRED

It all began with the hair, the glorious red hair which my two daughters share with their aunts, great aunts and were she alive today, their maternal grandmother. My mum was also one of two read haired girls, and that sense of history repeating and a connection reaching back through time did not go unnoticed. Plus, at some point, my aunt gave me mum’s plait which she had cut off when she was 16, to enjoy life with short hair forever after. I wondered what I could possibly do with it. In 2012 I did a photo shoot with my daughters then aged 10 and 12, focusing on their hair. This produced some pleasing results, but I really needed a better camera. I got my first camera when I was around 10, living in Kathmandu, it was an old fashioned one with a fold out lense that had belonged to my dad. I have always enjoyed photography and have used it as an integral part of my artwork. With a new digital SLR I was able to work at home in a way that did not take up much space, I began experimenting with the photographs on the computer. Computers play a big part in Textiles, and whilst doing my degree in Textiles at the ANU I first explored computer generated artwork and computer manipulation. I combined the images with different backgrounds such as rusty metal, random marks on the walls of the local underpass and floral designs on favourite t-shirts. The images reminded me of stains you might see on mildewy wallpaper and the human trait of pareidolia, seeing what appears to the individual to be a face, figure, or form in wood grain, smoke, shadows, or any non-homogeneous area. The Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. The works feel ethereal and evocative of the veil between our world and the world of spirit. Something is coming through.