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

My practice is hugely driven by memory and the archive. I work with a range of found and archival imagery which I aim to use to tell a narrative of personal and collective histories. Half of the images I use are of my childhood home, or photographs my parents took before I was born. The other half are images that I’ve found through a Facebook page called Coffs Harbour History. My dad grew up in Coffs Harbour in the 60’s and 70’s, in a very progressive household, with hippie parents that were often vocal in the community about environmental and social issues. Much of my recent work is an exploration of shared histories, how many Australians have this collective memory of the ‘good old days’. This is especially true for rural beach towns and I think to this day, a lot of this culture is still preserved in these areas which is why Australians love to holiday in them. To me, Coffs Harbour seems like quite a boring place to grow up, but to my dad, it was his entire identity and he had a unique, action filled childhood which he still looks back on with fondness. Through my practice, I aim to create a narrative which is based around my father’s childhood, but also based on Australian culture as a whole.

Elements of chance or the unexpected are a bittersweet component to many printmaking processes. How does this aspect of matrix development inform your practice and investigation into the subconscious and surreal? 

One aspect of printmaking that has always been a huge driving force for me is that often you have to accept and embrace unintentional elements. Similarly to analogue photography, you won’t know what the final outcome will be until the very end, and then it’s almost impossible to step backwards and undo mistakes. That’s something I embrace wholeheartedly in my printmaking practice, especially with my copper plate etchings. You can push a plate further but can never step backwards. It’s a bit corny, but each copper plate I create is a journey, and teaches me more about what a tricky process printmaking can be. Many of my etchings were actually formed by mistakes that I ended up pushing further, until something emerged that I was satisfied with. I think leaning into this unexpected element of print is what gives the finished works a certain je ne sais quoi. In my prints, for example, I like the fact that my etchings are scratchy, grainy or imperfect, because it reminds me of those old photographs that you find crumpled up in a shoe box under your parents bed or at the back of a wardrobe that’s been untouched for years. 

Your more recent practice sees the collision between analogue and digital processes, where you edit or distort old photographs and videos using grids. Can you tell us a bit more about your exploration into ‘glitched’ aesthetics? 

For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by grids and analogue film processes, so it seemed only fitting that I would merge the two. I’m fascinated with the concept of gridding as a form of understanding, so the gridding aesthetic in a way is me piecing together my personal history and a way of understanding why I am reworking these images. It’s a very cathartic experience, and requires a lot of patience to weave together paper. I think it’s just as much about the finished product as it is about the process of ‘making’. Etching is also a slow process, so there is a lot of time for reflection. To me, this process of ‘glitching by hand’ is representative of how memories can be false, how sometimes you aren’t sure whether you’re remembering something correctly, or if it’s something you’ve constructed through stories and photographs. I think it’s an interesting parallel, when a computer does not have enough information to form an image, it pixelates it, or it glitches. Similarly, I am manually glitching an image in an attempt to understand.

Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?

Studying at the National Art School means that I come into contact with so many incredible female printmakers almost daily. It’s such a positive environment, we all support each other and collaborate, which influences me immensely. In early 2020, I was lucky enough to be a part of the exhibition, The Wasteland, curated by Bea Buckland-Willis, just before the first Covid lockdown. All of the exhibitors were and still are close friends of mine and we can come together to celebrate printmaking and support each other in all aspects of life. 

Of course there are other more established or international artists that influence me, but I think it’s these women who have the most profound effect on my practice. I should also mention my printmaking mentor, Carolyn Mckenzie-Craig who has taught me pretty much everything I know about etching and working with photographs in print.

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

I’m currently working to create a body of work for my NAS grad show at the end of the year! I’m also working more with analogue video footage such as Super 8 reels and VHS tapes which is an exciting challenge that I hope will push my work in a slightly different direction. Covid permitting, I am also looking forward to completing a Masters of Fine Art and maybe doing an artist residency within the next couple of years.