Garland Award for Innovative Storied Object.
Highly commended: Chapman and Bailey.
Searching for Light, The One Tree, and the Universe in a Piece of Quartz.
Debra Higgins is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives, works, and studies in Naarm/Melbourne. Her recent work relates to the Whipstick Forest, near Bendigo, on the traditional lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung peoples.
Buddhist, environmentalist, and amateur anthropologist, Debra’s creative practice is strongly influenced by philosophies pertaining to impermanence and the interconnectedness of all things, and her deep love for the natural world. Her work is informed by walking the Whipstick, alongside her ongoing research into the forest’s geological, ecological, and chequered gold mining history.
Debra’s work crosses a range of modalities including painting, printmaking, photography, poetic performance, and installation. A recent development within her practice is the collection of detritus from the forest as both an act of care and restitution. She takes the old, devalued and discarded, turning them into new and unexpected forms, creating assemblages of transformation for this somewhat reluctant sculptor.
