HOLD ON TO YOURSELF unfolds as a space of tension between protection and exposure, vulnerability and strength. The work invites a process of returning to one’s authentic self — a slow and tender uncovering of what has been buried in the pursuit of safety. Centred on an ongoing personal transformation, it reflects the attempt to reclaim softness, sensitivity, and sensuality as vital aspects of being.
Formed from seven semi-transparent latex and hair panels encircling a cluster of stuffed textile arms, the installation evokes the feeling of being close to a truth. The materials hover between the bodily and the symbolic, operating in an oscillation between revealing and concealing. Here, the skin becomes the vehicle for truth — a permeable boundary that both protects and exposes. While rooted in personal experience, HOLD ON TO YOURSELF gestures toward a shared condition of vulnerability, offering viewers a quiet space to reflect on their own processes of holding, healing, and becoming.
Artist Bio
Ambrose de Lima is a 27-year-old Australian-Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Working across sculpture, textiles, sound, and installation, de Lima’s practice explores materials as metaphors for the body, humanness, and lived experience. Rooted in a therapeutic impulse, their work transforms emotional processes into tangible form. As a neurodivergent artist with ADHD and dyslexia, de Lima engages making as a way to untangle, understand, and articulate what is otherwise difficult to express through language.