Untitled Page

In 2008 Ipswich Art Gallery commissioned 13 contemporary Queensland artists to repsond to an Ipswich House. The final works made up the 2010 the exhibtion 'The Ipswich House'.

I was asked to respond to 'Rockton', a rambling 'mansion' that sits in an extensive garden on Limestone Hill. Building began on the site in 1855 with a modest dwelling and it has been subsequently modified and added to in various styles by each successive owner.

My final Rockton works were a series of artist books. The first, four sheets of pieced 2cm squares sewn with linenthread and housed in a handmade box.

This work reflects the piecemeal nature of Rockton. The house has grown and been stitched together over many years, and at times the intersections between various styles and owners are starkly evident. There is no overwhelming sense of a single place, rather one moves through loosley defined areas and multiple points of interest, somehow held together by the interweaving of stories and lives. The place and the work is grounded by the presence and textures of the outdoors, leaves trees, plants,sky, and paper handmade from ginger plants in the Rockton gardens.

The second work, two concertina books, are embedded with digital imagery and skeletonised leaves from the Rockton gardens. Like Rockton, each image is layerd,multi-facetted, with a mulitude of decorative styles juxtaposed one on the other.

The works now form part of the Ipswich Art Gallery collection.