1-2 July 2023
Flood affected house, Ocean Shores, NSW, Australia
Curated by Kasia Jarosz, a group show including Karma Barnes, Emily-Sarah Boldeman, Susan Davidson, Liv Enquist, Ree Hegh, Isabell Heiss, Greg Hughes, Kasia Jarosz, Chelsea Jewell, Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, Victoria Rehn, Ivonne Rother and Immortal soil.
“A group of local artists have come together to re-examine and challenge the conventional notion of ‘Home’ and celebrate our flood-affected house on the brink of demolition.
This exhibition is a gesture of hope, resilience and creative transformation and aims to support the community by re-imagining the meaning of ‘Home’ as we look towards the future after the 2022 floods.
We invite you to join us and immerse yourself in an array of artworks, music and site-specific art installations, many created especially for this event.”
Found object, string, fibre tip pen
“I’ve worked hard.
For so many years I’ve provided comfort, security and support.
In sickness and in health, I created a place to relax and feel at home.
But now I am cast aside, left out in the cold and rain.
Unwanted, unloved, no longer desirable,
no where to go.”
Made before the floods of 2022, Sofa Surfer is my response to a problem that was already prevalent in our community; the issue of homelessness, faced by so many after the breakdown of a family or relationship. Over worked but under valued by society, mothers and older women especially are vulnerable, and go unseen as they stay with friends or sleep in their cars.
My personal experience of homelessness is somewhat different. After over a decade ‘living on the road’; choosing homelessness, I preferred to see it as house-less.
After years sleeping on the earth and under the stars, I learned to see ‘home’ as a place within myself.
Digital print on cotton rag paper
When I was little my big sisters were punks.
When my Grandmother died my Dad inherited her mobility scooter, which he kept for his own impending old age.
35 years later Mum cut back the ivy down the side of my childhood home.