Disclaimer: this artist profile contains nudity

Chelsea Farquhar

Chelsea Farquhar is an artist and designer living and working on Kaurna Land, South Australia. Farquhar graduated from Adelaide Central School of Art in 2017 and completed her Honours at The Victorian College of Arts in 2020. Embracing collaboration and DIY methodologies, Farquhar’s practice often involves sculpture and image making using materials such as textiles, pewter, glass, lead-lighting as well as processes like screenprinting, casting from life, sewing and knitting. Extravagant and flamboyant in nature, contorted or abstracted bodies often appear, as do friends, who serve as models (cast or photographed).Recent exhibitions include soft tongues, gritted teeth, Gallery Lane Cove, 2025; Octopus 24: Ricochet, Gertrude Contemporary, 2024; In Other Words, KINGS Artist-Run, Melbourne, 2023; and How one should turn to stone, West Space Window, Melbourne, 2021. In recent years, Chelsea’s practice has grown to include fashion and clothing which she has shared through various runway programs.

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

My practice is driven by a curiosity and enthusiasm for making. I love learning and researching processes and methods for making textiles, tools, pigments, dyes, etc. Within my studio I build up many different techniques and skills to give myself the ability to express ideas in the most effective way rather than feeling limited to one material or process. The role of process is important to me in the studio and in the outcome whether that be gallery, runway or photograph. When I begin a project I jump into research and testing for a couple months. Through this process I’m building the world of this project into my studio and often it bleeds into my life. After months of immersion, I will begin to naturally distill the techniques down to a couple methods. I'm not interested in mastering any one skill but more interested in creating a visual language that exists across the lifetime of my art practice and mastering what it is that I do as an artist and maker.

Your practice is innately subversive—crossing disciplines and resisting registration. How does this openness to the unexpected shape the direction of your work?

I think, ultimately, I'm not afraid of making mistakes. I've grown into that mindset over the years in order to keep making art. When I strive to be perfect I often freeze. Embracing learning and developing has allowed me to keep moving through the failed attempts. I'm happy for things not to work out perfectly, I love when there are traces of the artist in finished works. When you can see the artist's hand it feels like the work is still alive and the storytelling is ongoing. I'm always searching for the sweet spot between failure and perfection, boredom and excitement.

Screen printing is a good example of this. I often work in CMYK format with four screens: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. I'll line them up by sight rather than with markings or equipment. This usually leads to the layers being out of alignment by millimeters. This mismatching causes a visual vibration – a fuzziness that I find really exciting. Issues arise if all the layers are out of alignment so it's that balance of getting the important layers in place correctly but then leaving room for play and error at the same time. It's lots of fun.

How has your experience in fashion design informed your approach to printmaking?

I thought when I started screen printing that I would want to print designs and images on to fabrics all the time, but I actually find it surprisingly challenging. I went through a period when I first learnt screen printing in 2022 when I printed on large rolls of fabric and then made clothes from that and then printed on clothes I had already made but I didn't fall in love with the process and outcomes in the way I thought I would. I think one day the right project/inspiration will pop up but for now they just co-exist in my studio.

I enjoy using printmaking as a tool to present fashion photos as it provides a layer of texture and character to the photo. I think the print style of halftone dots, misalignment, messy printing speaks in conversation with the subject of the image. This usually speaks to a relationship I have with the handmade clothes and model in the photographs. Close friends, collaborators, muses are often the subjects of my work. Experimentation and play with collaborators is one of my favourite parts of the making process. Together with Macey Smith (model) and Cecilia Tizard (photographer) we screenprinted a portrait of Macey on to her back in a room full of prints of her pinned on the wall behind her. I really love those images for their absurdity, humour, beauty and spontaneity. I think we were just pushing the boundaries of printing, portraiture and what it means to model and be represented.

How do kink aesthetics and fetishisation (e.g. the gimp mask) help you explore ideas of power, sexuality, and representation in your practice?

The gimp mask for me sits somewhere between Fashion history and Queer History. I first made the mask in 2021 for my friend Liv for a performance night. It felt like an amazing moment of meeting someone who wanted to wear and embody this object that I had wanted to make for so long. I made her whole outfit that night but the mask felt really transformative. Liv is an amazing performer, who really thrives on any stage. This particular performance she and her bandmate had created a kind of experience of unraveling. Loud noise music, (fake) blood pouring out of this horned black-leather-esque mask with a zipped mouth. It was grotesque and amazing. As a maker, it feels connective to make something that someone wears and feels like themself or a version of themself in. While these masks do have a kink and fetish origin I think I'm really drawn to their multilayered interpretation and experience of wearing. For me, they feel really anonymous, safe, silent and also like a kind of protective wear all whilst simultaneously being hyper visibly queer, which is not something that is easy to be all the time.

Are there any printmakers/artists that influence you?

In terms of leather masks, I’m obsessed with Nancy Grossman’s leather and wood head series. I draw reference for the photographic side of my work from the portraits by Catherine Opie. I am also influenced by Franz Erhard Walther’s deconstruction of clothing and play with 3D–2D forms, where I’m especially drawn to the interactive installation pieces and like the involvement of activation and its link to the body. Do Ho Suh approach to sewing and pattern making is an influence of mine, in particular the way his installations distort reality and have sense of surrealism.

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

As mentioned, I'm currently working a lot, and finishing up a Certificate Three in textiles, and apparels at Tafe SA. I'm mostly focusing on upskilling my sewing skills but I do have a video work that I'll be starting in the second half of the year that I'm excited about.