Zoe Bilston

Zoe Bilston is an emerging artist based in Canberra, Australia. Having recently completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in Printmedia and Drawing, she works across drawing, printmedia, and fibre art practices to create work utilising a variety of visual languages. Within her artistic process, Bilston is interested in exploring contemporary limitations on freedom of movement and travel as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. She is intrigued by ideas surrounding memory and nostalgia associated with travelling and the accumulation of ephemera. Her work is held in private collections across Australia. Bilston received the Max Hawk Travelling Scholarship to undertake a semester abroad studying at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee, Scotland. She also received the Megalo Print Studio and Gallery Residency award alongside the Altenburg & Co Solo Exhibition Award as part of the ANU Emerging Artist Support Scheme. She will graduate from her Bachelor of Design in mid 2021 as she continues to work at the National Gallery of Australia.

Flights is an ongoing collection of work made in response to the COVID19 pandemic and resulting limitations on travel and freedom of movement. The work aims to explore the resulting nostalgia we feel for past memories, places and experiences. The Flights featured in the collection act as a snapshot in time; a time where flights could be caught with great freedom. The moments pictured are just that, moments. They suggest a much greater linear narrative of a time before and after the snapshot was taken. Photographs which the works are based on were all taken mere months before the onset of the pandemic throughout a period from July 2019 to February 2020. Viewers are encouraged to ponder and discuss the current unprecedented circumstances through the lens of travel. When was the last time you took a flight?