She’s a Real Mermaid
Mixed Media
In one sentence please describe your style.
The work is a raw, expressionistic attempt of an experiential truth.
What do you hope the viewer of your art work will feel… do you think about the viewer when you are creating?
I would be happy if the viewer felt anything at all. A lot of art can miss the mark for me in feeling, so I’m always grateful when an artwork pushes me to contact something within, even if that means connecting with uncomfortable emotions, which I incidentally get off on. haha.
In painting, unless it’s a commissioned piece, I never think about the viewer (unfortunately for my mum who thinks I should, haha). Probably because the integrity of the piece becomes somehow contrived. In performance art though, one of the decisions I go through in the process of deciding factors is my relationship with the audience. I am acutely aware of my connection to them, and how much I want to challenge a response or invite them to one.
Caviar
Mixed Media
54 X 38
You have said in the past, “Form is derived from a connection to the unconscious.” Please elaborate on this intriguing thought…
For years, I’ve mulled over how and why and where ideas come from… the impetus to do anything at any given time is difficult to articulate. I would have to consider the experiential knowledge one acquires from moment to moment. And also consider the heavy religious conditioning in my youth which affected my sexuality for many years. The perfection and discipline of dancing with The Victorian College of the Arts (secondary school) and The Australian Ballet School. The many masks I played with for the 8 years I was an actor. The constant pursuit for truth in philosophy, Jungian dream psychology, the occult, Vipassana, Zen Buddhism, quantum physics… the list goes on. The places I’ve lived in: China, Montreal, Bangkok, Athens, Berlin and my home Australia. It all just feeds the moment to rip everything apart and turn it on its head.
Pineapple Lovers
Please tell us about the painting “Pineapple Lovers”
This piece first started in Berlin (2017) and like many of my pieces back then, they were left unfinished due to my sudden upheaval in countries. Berlin for me, was a sexually liberating time, and it also coincided with the beginning of my “pornography” series. Forms were crass, unrefined, at times transparent, non-sensical… in every sense liberating.
If you could only choose 1 medium to paint with FOREVER, what would that medium be? (Evil question… I know!)
That’s a really hard question…. But the first thought that jumps to me is oil. The range of possibilities is always inspiring to work with.
You often use the word “experiment” when describing your work. Tell us about the importance of experimentation in your work and in general.
I’m not content to sit on a formula or pattern. Granted, sometimes I can’t help it when a “leg of lamb in fishnets” keeps popping up (haha) but it’s more important for me to fail and push myself into uncomfortable spaces than to rest on any laurels of technical ability or the work that some people say I should keep producing. Pleasing forms… familiar representations…. It has an adverse effect on me.
Your Chalky Eye
Mixed Media
You’ve told me that manifestation is important to you. Why?
Understanding the basics of the quantum field is like wielding a magic wand. Something pops into space, and it all starts with how you think. Perhaps reality doesn’t play out as you believe it should, but I’ve never regretted any of the crazy ideas I’ve manifested or tried to. The moment has always led me to something more authentic, even if that is a lesson to be learned. It’s a gateway to knowing yourself better. It forces you to know what beliefs you’ve held onto that aren’t conducive to the direction you are pulled to.
One of the biggest unconscious manifestations I did, (usually they are more consciously driven) is the time I wrote a novel while living in China. I re-read the book years later and realised I lived the same experience as my protagonist. While it had the flair of magic realism, the metaphors hit me hard and I couldn’t dispute the power of often writing something down.
You are a writer, a painter and a performance artist. How do these different art forms influence each other?
I forgot to tell you, but I also produce music (if you could call it that) under the name THPC. Well, I think given that the ideas are all coming from the same un/known source, I’d say they are all ricocheting off that. In reflection, I can see metaphors, visuals, or ideas that cross over. It all makes sense to me in multiple ways.
Explain your relationship with performance art. Why is performing important to you?
I first fell into performance art, when I developed a collaboration with Nico Sauer in Berlin (2018). We had briefly met there before I returned to Australia. We shared an electric, mutating creativity and it was literally the very next day after deciding we would work together that we got confirmation from a gallery in Berlin that we could do a show there. Working online for 3 months about concepts and details before flying over for 10 days doing 2 shows (Berlin, Paris) was really the new beginning of a magical expression. After that, I was just hungry to do more. And for reasons that painting fails in providing sometimes. The feeling of collaborating and engaging with people, actual people, is just so rewarding. And after the moment I perform it’s done. I can get a little documentation but really for those that were there, that experienced that moment with me. It’s transcendental. People’s impressions of the work is so incredibly insightful and profound. That’s why I don’t tell people why I do something… I would much rather them get something out of it themselves. They have enough people, like the media and that wormhole box (tv) telling them what to think. (Says she who bows to the god Netflix)
Please tell us about your performance art piece “We(e) Boat!”
I wanted to take my mum and daughter to Hobart to see MONA. Of course all holiday and no work, is just no fun. So I got in contact with some photographers and found a videographer that could help document the performance piece. This was around the time when a huge migration of refugees was happening globally. While I don’t make any effort to watch the news, our governments position here in Australia was and is appalling in how they treat people, when incidentally (apart from the Nation’s First People) we all arrived on boats. I wanted to cleanse this situation with rainbow milk. While I’m not a political person, I do feel a duty as an artist to reflect, challenge, inspire people’s consciousness. If not my own.
What have you discovered, if anything, about yourself as an artist during the lockdown period?
I discovered that I really like silence. And the ability to focus myself without a small person asking me 50 questions in the space of 2 mins. Hahaha.
What positive changes do you see happening in the arts world as a result of the Covid19 Pandemic?
I can see how the industry has morphed to fit the pandemic. It has had to think outside the box to “play the good guy” in an otherwise heavy fear-induced reality. Museums and some galleries offer guided online tours. There’s free art books and courses being made available to the public. People have more time to contact artistic expressions within themselves, which incidentally creates a better appreciation for other art and the artists themselves. And it’s not just in the arts world, this situation has had a whole ripple effect of giving people the opportunity to pick up that book, learn something new, dance, write and get inspired. I can only hope things continue to surprise us in good ways.
Can you tell us something about “Sunlit”?
This was one of the first pieces that started to come off the canvas. Using a fine linen and paint, I wanted to break away from the confinements of a traditional painting. Fabric has this whole other quality that piques an interest for me. The way it folds, hides things, protrudes, hangs… it’s just got a vulnerability to it that speaks volumes to me. That, plus my eternal fascination with people made this piece more engaging to see it from many angles. I would love to frame it somehow in a glass box…. One day….
I’ve never asked anyone this in an interview, but I feel drawn to ask you this so I’m going for it…. Do you believe in alternate dimensions?
Absolutely. With what we know about time and space, there is no doubt in my juvenile science mind that they don’t exist. As a child, I was really big on all ideas that pushed the envelope. It opened more possibilities to a limited reality. Just take Enid Blyton’s “The Folk and the Faraway Tree”. A classic children’s book. There’s endless dimensions happening right at the top of the tree! I’ve never thought that it couldn’t be possible. Ok…. Maybe not at the top of a tree, but through a wormhole yes! Or a portal of some kind…. Now that would be a holiday I’d actually take and not work during. Haha