ARTIST STATEMENT

The basis of my arts practice is an embodiment of how I experience the world: attuned to its rhythms, forces and atmospheres. Living between Rakiura / Stewart Island and Karitane, I move between distinct natural and social landscapes. These environments shape my perception and inform my understanding of place, memory and the personal histories embedded within them.

My background in fine fashion and tailoring, alongside a longstanding passion for textile archaeology, has deeply influenced my practice. I am particularly interested in the ways textiles have carried stories, preserved knowledge and embodied human experience across millennia. This relationship between material, memory and knowledge continues to underpin my work.

In the studio, I have developed an original technique of weaving paper into highly textured, sculptural forms. I work intuitively with mixed media, extracted pigments and waste materials, often incorporating traditional textile processes such as knitting, crochet and embroidery. Through transforming discarded and fragile materials, I explore the potential for material to hold traces of experience, history and place.

Weaving, with its ancient and universal history, provides a framework for my metaphysical language. It connects my practice to a shared human inheritance while allowing me to explore the intangible relationships between body, landscape, memory and time.

The woven structure operates simultaneously as an abstract image and as something instinctively recognisable. It evokes cloth, shelter and the act of wrapping oneself in protection. In this sense, the work becomes a space of refuge—a material haven that invites contemplation, introspection and a deeper connection with the self.