USE/LESS
I am an emerging sculptural artist located on Wurundjeri Land, Melbourne. In my practice, I typically explore childhood and comfort, often using glitter and iridescent materials to recreate the childlike excitement that fades in adulthood. Sewing is also an important factor in my art practice as it allows me to refer to my matrilineal heritage and the reason that I fell in love with making art. I use these in conjunction with crafting techniques that are reminiscent of the wonders of my primary school art classes. I extend this idea of comfort in Use/less through nostalgic art-making techniques to act as an antidote to personal expectations of productivity.
Use/less culminates in a series of highly decorated, second-hand tools, that hang in front of a shadow board personalised with diary excerpts. I use worn out tools to symbolise the deterioration that constant productivity brings. I render these tools as useless by obscuring their function with decorations. These embellishments are made slowly, and mindfully. As such, the making process of this work acts as a personal antidote to my own subconscious desire for hyper-productivity.
This work is inspired by the burnout that I have been facing recently. I feel a constant pressure to be doing, and I am frustrated that I cannot escape it. So, I wanted to create a work that used slow, nostalgic making processes that could help me rediscover my love of art and express my frustration at today’s culture of hyper-productivity.
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