Cardboard Menagerie, Chrissie Cotter Gallery Camperdown, 2023
Artist Statement:
Cardboard Menagerie is about play - exploring a simple everyday material like cardboard, and turning it into something fun.
Cardboard craft is often associated with children’s play. It is versatile and pliable, and at its most abstract can be imbued with any quality a child wants. This idea of potential that is inherent in a cardboard is exciting, and that potential sits somewhere in between the simplicity of the material, and the complex levels of geometry and texture that can be reached.
The aim of this show is to celebrate the accessibility of cardboard, and in turn, the accessibility of art making and creative play. Everyone can get hold of a cardboard box, and a cardboard box can be anything.
The way I make things out of cardboard is largely improvisatory, embracing the structure and movement of existing folds and shapes and feeling my way along. Knowing only that I was building a stable of unusual creatures, I allowed myself the freedom of not knowing exactly what each one would become. The freedom of starting with nothing but a box, and the knowledge that sometimes making mistakes leads you somewhere unexpected.
Created for the wedding of Michael Hing and Humyara Mahbub, 2023
Cardboard Carousel: a bespoke sculptural piece photographed for display, selected to exhibit 6 March-29 May.
Newtown art seat is a permanent structure in Pride Square, Newtown combining public seating, artwork display and lighting, that creates a space to showcase experimental and non commercial art.