These works are based on a lifetime of walking and observing traces left on this desert land that I have been fortunate to call my home. They examine changes that have occurred and stories surrounding those changes.
The works make use of a diverse range of plants both local and introduced, found objects and a range of techniques from around the world. The materials and techniques tell a story of the pathways taken by humans as they traversed this earth and the changes they have brought.
I believe that to care for this country we need to begin by observing and experiencing the land at our doorstep. It is only by walking and using all our senses that we begin to discover the intricate, fragile patterns of desert land that hold so many stories, both ancient and more recent.
Elif Shafak writes in her book, ‘There are Rivers in the Sky’, of the destruction of the land once known as Mesopotamia – a land of wild rivers and rich forests … now a desert.
‘We make art to leave a mark for the future, a slight kink in the river of stories which flows too fast and too wildly for any of us to comprehend’