Selected Works
Myco-violin
Mycelium based composite growth forms (Ganoderma lucidum and sawdust), 2023
Myco-violin continues an exploration of mycelium-based composite materials. Mycelium, known as nature’s great decomposer, plays a vital role in sustaining a habitable planet by breaking down dead matter and recycling nutrients. It also exists in a fundamental symbiotic relationship with forest ecosystems, performing countless functions essential to life on Earth.
Like the iconic form of the violin, mycelium embodies the ephemeral beauty of life, fragile, temporal and deeply interconnected. The work invites reflection on our interdependence with the natural world and the many other living beings with whom we share it.
From End to End
Mycelium based composite growth forms (Ganoderma lucidum, Pleurotus Ostreatus and agricultural waste)
Site specific installation, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi to Tamarama coastal rock face, 2022
From End to End is a site specific installation situated on a rock platform, made from mycelium and agricultural waste grown into the forms of familiar plastic consumer objects. The biodegradable nature of the materials stands in contrast to the durability we often associate with both plastic and sculpture.
The use of mycelium, an organism that breaks down organic matter, invites reflection on natural cycles of growth, decay and renewal. By working with material destined to decompose, the work challenges traditional ideas of permanence in art and mirrors the quiet processes of nature that unfold beyond human concerns. It calls us to acknowledge our deep interdependence with other life forms in our shared environment.
The installation also responds to the disconnection that characterises modern consumer culture. We rarely witness the full lifecycle of the objects we use, nor their long afterlives in landfill or nature. Plastic is treated as disposable, yet it persists for generations. In contrast, art is often expected to be timeless, preserved indefinitely.
In an image-saturated digital world, our relationship with nature has grown increasingly shallow. From End to End asks us to slow down, to look again, and to re-establish a meaningful connection with our environment. It invites us to reconsider the systems that shape our consumption. By foregrounding decay, the work offers a quiet provocation, to reimagine value not through permanence, but through harmony with ecological cycles.
Sydney Blue Gum High Forest
Oil on canvas, 2019
This work developed through a process of visiting, photographing, drawing, and painting remnant patches of the Sydney Blue Gum High Forest.
One of eight distinct forest types in the Sydney bioregion listed nationally as critically endangered, the Blue Gum High Forest now occupies less than one per cent of its original range. Severely fragmented, it is considered unlikely to survive without intervention.
Ten views were selected to represent this unique and fragile ecosystem within the context of anthropogenic pressures it faces. Together, these fragments tell the story of an ancient landscape, continually shaped and steadily encroached upon by the edges of urban development.
The work was exhibited at the South Australia Museum as part of the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize (2020), where it received a Highly Commended award from the judges and was subsequently chosen to tour to the National Archives in Canberra.
