Bridget Baskerville

Bridget Baskerville is an early career artist based between Canberra (Ngunawal Ngambri Country) and her hometown of Kandos, NSW (Dabee Wiradjuri Country). Through the themes of community, history, time and ecology, Baskerville’s work examines socio-environmental issues faced in regional Australia, looking at human impact on place and the relationship between extractive industries and water. Baskerville works across media such as printmaking, installation, photography, and video. At the core of her current practice is the process of submerging metal plates in bodies of water impacted by human intervention and leaving them to corrode. This method serves as a means to emphasise the agency of water and non-human entities within these controlled systems, as evidenced by the texture and marks of corrosion that develop on the plate's surface.

Tell us about your creative process. What drives your practice?

I make art that engages with the social and environmental issues faced by communities in regional, rural, and remote Australia. As someone from a small town who was raised in a mining family, I am passionate about creating more sustainable futures for regional, working class communities and this informs the type of art I make.

Currently in my practice, I am focusing on waterways impacted by extraction and human intervention. I have previously collaborated with waterways such as coal mine dams and disused coal sumps on Wiradjuri Country, as well as an acid mine river (The Queen River) located in Queenstown, Lutruwita/Tasmania. In these locations, I place metal plates (usually mild steel, copper, or zinc) and leave them to corrode. This process aims to reflect the agency of the non-human in the mark making process. In addition to this, I also take video and audio documentation of the plates in situ and the sites that I work with, to accompany the plates when installed.

What is the role of site-specificity and chance within your work?

Site-specificity directly informs the work I make. I feel most inspired when I’m on site and find working outside suits me more than a conventional studio practice. I am drawn to making artwork that collaborates with the environment as I aim to bring the reality of these locations into gallery spaces. Despite this, placing a metal plate into a body of water, taking it out and installing it in a gallery feels to me as an action that potentially mimics the extractive process. It’s something I am currently grappling with, but I also feel this tension is what my art is trying to convey.

The outcome of my work is quite dependent on chance. I look at the process of corrosion as a collaboration with water, mud, air, weather, and time. It excites me that I have little control over the outcome. My plates also reflect the time and weather they were created in, just as much as the location.

What is your attraction to the metal plate and corrosion? Have you ever tried printing them?

My attraction to the metal plate comes from the direct link between metal and extraction. I am drawn to corrosion and how it shows the agency of non-human collaborators. I sometimes link my choice of metal with the context of the location I am working in. During my recent residency with The Unconformity in Queenstown, Lutruwita/Tasmania, I placed copper plates in the acid mine Queen River. This linked my process to the context of Queenstown and the Mount Lyell Copper mine, the mine that polluted the Queen River with acid mine drainage.

My use of metal has also emerged from my etching practice and previous experimentation with mark making and environmental collaboration. Although in the past I have tried printing some plates, I’ve decided not to pursue this process as I really like the plates in their current form. The plates speak to a direct interaction with the site they were made in, and they begin to embody their environment as they pick up chunks of mud, small stones and leaves and these details would be lost in the printing process.

I recommend looking at the work of artist Heather Burness, as her practice also speaks to water and how the textures of corrosion can be translated to the printmaking process.

Your practice delves into themes of ecological crisis through material and process. What is the significance of engaging in this discourse as a regional artist?

Regional communities are often the ones most directly impacted by ecological crisis. At the same time these communities are also often facing difficult social and economic realities. As a regional artist, I aim to address environmental issues through a social lens. I try to make art that hopefully encourages conversation, and reflects the location and community it was created in. As someone from a mining family, I feel an obligation to engage in conversation about how the colonial extractive mindset has negatively impacted ecological systems in regional Australia. As someone from a low socio-economic town, with the privilege of having a tertiary education, I also feel I have an obligation to advocate for better options of employment and more education opportunities for people living in these regional, rural, and remote areas. I would love for my work to highlight the need to build more sustainable futures for these locations.

Are there any female printmakers/artists that influence you?

There are so many! I’ll only include a few in order to keep my list concise. Artists that inspire my current practice include Julie Gough, Kelly Leonard, Tina Stefanou and Polly Stanton.

I am also very grateful to have gone through ANU Printmedia and Drawing when Alison Alder was head of the workshop. At ANU, I was also lucky to study under the guidance of artists such as Anna Madeleine Raupach, Rebecca Mayo and Ella Barclay.

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

I’m currently in a stage of experimentation. I wish to expand my practice to look at different locations with different contexts, including water in more urban environments. I have an upcoming residency, in a location that is totally different to any I’ve worked with before. I am excited to see how this experience will challenge my art making process and expand my understanding of human and non-human relationships.