Tell us about your creative process, what drives your practice?

I have always felt a passion for artmaking— making something new out of an already existing object. Creating a visual language unique to me and ever-interpretable by a viewer is very exciting to me. A big part of my drive is creating something new in this world as a means to truly interact with it and to ponder on it. Having a viewer then consider my own considerations adds to the perpetual cycle of sharing and resharing stories and ideas. Moreover, the physical labour of engaging with print practices is incredibly satisfying. Learning new ways to communicate and explore ideas never gets old. 

Your work explores, as you have described, ‘the age of reproduction’. Is the function of printmaking methods in your work a direct commentary on this or something different?

The use of printmaking methods is absolutely a direct nod to the age of reproduction. Using a medium which is inextricably connected to the copy allows me to very quickly form a discourse with the age of reproduction. I think what makes it even more interesting at the moment for me is including mediation of digital elements within traditional methods of printmaking. This way I am able to use fundamentally reproduction driven techniques to ponder on the way reproduction affects us today. Contemporary capitalist and commercially driven spaces are riddled with reproduction as a way to please us, and sell to us. This includes classic mass-produced printed advertisements on bus stops, all the way to algorithmically curated video ads targeted directly to us. By disrupting the cycle with more methods of reproduction I am able to question this reality and how it affects me. 

What is the significance of Sydney youth culture and nostalgia in your practice?

I must admit I have moved away from the idea of documenting Sydney youth culture in my work more recently. I think I used to be a lot more involved in this aspect of my experience, but am now delving into more theoretical considerations of the world around me. Less figurative and archival, and moving to more nuanced collections of images as my source material. I still photograph quite a lot, and actually in a more nostalgic way. I’m tending to photograph more spaces, buildings, and abstract bodies. Moving away from clarity in a hope to create a kind of nostalgic, universal feeling in the viewer. I still believe that my practice will inherently provide some kind of documentation of Sydney youth culture because that is the culture I am immersed in, and whether I like it or not, my work will have aspects of that in it.

Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?

Loads. I find more and more influential female artists everyday. I’m very excited about the more revisionist histories being written, reclaiming female’s role within the western art canon. Recently I have been loving the work of Rebecca Beardmore. Her practice really resonates with my search for identity through use of reproductive techniques, seen in a work like Left to Right Face. I also really love Petra Cortright’s older work using the computer as a matrix. Her work VVEBCAM seems very before it’s time. I think it’s incredibly pertinent to contemporary digital experiences and the ensuing warped identity we encounter. Camille Hernot’s practice is another influence for me. It's just so chaotic, it really encompasses the feeling of the onslaught of images and information in the age of reproduction. There are so many other inspiring female artists. I am currently studying at the National Art School and I get to work with and alongside some of the most incredible artists, who also happen to be female. So many of my female teachers are role models and inspirations to me, especially Carolyn McKenzie-Craig. There are also so many skilled and intelligent emerging female artists studying at The National Art School, I feel very grateful to get to be around so many incredible females all the time.

Finally, what exciting projects are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently studying my Masters of Fine Arts which is the main ‘project’ I’m working on at the moment. It’s super exciting to be able to use the studio so often and just play! Exploring both theoretically and practically is also a lot of fun — I really enjoy the research aspect of artmaking. Other than that ongoing practice, I’m starting to explore curating which is very exciting and daunting. There are a couple of events coming up which I’ve contributed to as a curator, there will be more information about those events soon!