Description
The artworks in the Ash, Mud & Tears collection were produced for an exhibition of the same name – a collaboration with textile artist, Jude White exhibited at the Northern Regional Community Gallery, Ballina, NSW in 2023.
‘Holding it Together’ series emerged in response to the 2022 floods and sculptures III-VI blend solid timber with sharp-edged metal seemingly spilling from an unseen interior. The works explore the uncertainty of what’s solid and the hidden aspects of internal landscapes, reflecting a heightened vulnerability and sense of exposure. The artwork serves as a thought-provoking commentary on the impact climate change triggered events are having on the landscapes and communities of this region.
Here are some of Michelle’s thoughts about these works –
The series of small sculptures titled ‘Holding it Together’ were made in response to the devastation and turmoil of fires and floods which ravaged this region, and the steps to recovery that our community has made in the months and years since that time. When I started working in the studio immediately following the 2022 floods, I wanted to capture the rawness and force experienced during the events, and associated disruption and grief. In talking with friends and work colleagues in affected areas, this phrase, ‘barely holding it together’ was often repeated. The events stripped people of a sense of normality and trust in the safety of the landscape around them.
In the studio, I began with timber from a dining table salvaged after the floods and cut segments and started arranging them with other salvaged objects, as well as some old carpenter’s materials gifted from my late father. The joy of working with found materials is that they provide a rich story layer to every piece. The experience of the floods brought up this overwhelming focus on ‘precious things’ – objects of people’s lives that were lost/inundated, in some cases, salvaged and reclaimed from the mud but mostly tossed out onto the curb for collection. Objects and their connection to people’s stories of identity and place became a key focus.
The materials of ‘Holding it Together III-VI’ include salvaged timber, copper, and iron and brass nails. The sculptures are small in scale – each about 12cm tall and 7cm across – and incorporate my jeweller’s attention to fine details working with small components. The ‘solid’ timber elements sandwich the materials ‘spilling out’ from a largely unseen interior. I wanted to explore the uncertainty of what is solid (and what might only have that appearance), with what people might be holding inside that is just below the surface of what they are willing to reveal. There is also an acute state of vulnerability and sense of exposure which the events amplified – both physical in terms of safety as well as the emotional and mental experiences. Pressure for the need to continue to ‘hold it together’ comes still today from government expectations and from the likelihood that climate events such as these will increase in frequency in the future.
The day before the February 2022 flood, I moved home and studio to Murwillumbah. While spared from impact there, the studio in Lismore where I was teaching enameling was completely inundated and work and materials lost. Two years on, the acute sense of loss remains present in every boarded-up building, house and shop front despite the passing of time. People are exhausted from trying to create some semblance of daily life while they grapple with how to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. This is particularly evident in story for Lismore and the hinterland of Mullumbimby.
Michelle’s eye for unconventional beauty draws to the worn and scuffed and rusty. With silversmithing and jewellery design as her first areas of arts training, Michelle brings that focus on the smallest details to her 2D and 3D work.
