'River Costumes' 2024

This 'River Costume' series are an initial investigation into theatrical costumes which personify the River. Produced for my installation, 'Theatre of the River' for Cementa 24. The costumes offered a performative and interactive element to my installation work. Available for the public at large to try on and wear throughout the town of Kandos during the Cementa festival. Up-cycling clothing is reconstructed with the addition of further textiles, fabric paint and dye, hand stitching and embellished with sequins and beads, these costumes are perceived as artworks. Photographed here in my studio they mark and new development and direction in my art practice, adding to my oeuvre of painting, ceramics, textile and video works. The costume is an aspect I aim to develop, exhibiting them within commercial and regional gallery contexts. Alongside collaborative performances with choreographers, dancers, actors and musicians.

'Shaman River' costumes 2024

'Shaman River' costumes presented as artworks, hang freely in space or as artworks to be worn. These costumes featured for the first time at the Cementa 24 Festival. Consisting of assembled textiles, fabric paint, fabric dye, sewing, and hand stiching. Appraoched as a painting, with an intuitive layering of textile, textures and stitching, as drawing or mark making. They are an extention of my investigation into the river and river politics. preseted as shaman vestments. The functionality of clothing speaks of an inherint knowledge and history, they act as carers of the river or as a portentous oracle. The works refect and are an embodiment of the river, a source of fertility, a provider of water and renewal. signifying the ecological significance of water, a finite resource with increasing awareness and relevance of water management and water allocations.

'Theatre of the River' Installation, Cementa 24.

Exhibited within St Dominics Prayer Room, part of the Cementa 24 Festival, this installation is an emersive embodiment of the local rivers and watercourses of the Kandos region. Constisting of textile hangings, sculptural water vessels holding water and video projections with a water soundscape and interviews I undertook during my two week residency at WayOut Studios. Local regenerative farmers, indigenous elders, local community members and artists discuss the ecology, philosophy, cultural and emotional attitudes to the River.

"The river is a source of fertility, a provider of water and renewal. Kandos historically an industrial town, water was used in the manufacture of cement, a weir blocked the natural flow of the Cudgegong River. This work acknowledges the significance of local waterways, releasing and bringing the river into the town of Kandos. Man-made artificial constructions mimic the natural; textile hangings evoke a theatrical river wonderland, video with voices of the community discuss the ecological significance and river experiences, and participatory theatrical river costumes are offered; whereby we can all become active performers and caretakers of the river".