burg-zu-hagen, GERMANY | 21 APRIL - 11 AUGUST 2024

Rebloom

IAPMA PAPER ART BIENNALE 2024: rebloom

Three pulp paper artworks selected for the IAPMA Paper Art Biennale Rebloom exhibition, Germany.

These were created at my residency at the Fish Factory Creative Arts Centre in Stöðvarfjörður, East Iceland, 2022 as part of my Stone Stories project supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

Mountains dominate the skyline in Stödvarfjördur in East Iceland. There are few trees or flower gardens, instead the townsfolk paint their doors and windows in bright colours and collect stones from the mountains and fjord shorelines. These stones are placed in their gardens where they bloom as features in the domestic landscape. They stones give the appearance of benevolent nature spirits, like additional family and community members, each with their own distinctive form and presence.

My paper pulp paintings capture these small human habitations and their rock gardens. Paper pulp was initially made from recycled cotton clothing which travelled with me as dried paper patties to be reconstituted with Icelandic water. These circular papers hold the memories of time spent in a stark wintry landscape.