2022 New Work

Treeviolet ; Black Wattle ; Sheoak

plant material embedded in handmade mitsumata paper and waxed

I only fell in the river once ; Melbourne City from Birrarung Maar ; Reflect

Cyanotypes on handmade pulp painted paper

These works were part of an exhibition held at Art Gallery on Darling called Three Rivers. It was a joint show with two other artists. My work for this show was all inspired by the Yarra River. My process involved visiting multiple sections of the river over the course of six months, I collected water and fallen leaves, bark and seed pods as well as my own photographs. I soaked Zerkall paper in the river water, then steamed the paper with the collected leaves and an iron blanket to create a beautiful array of leaf prints. I collected material from over twenty stops on the Yarra, from Mt Baw Baw to Newport, as well as from a dozen of the tributaries. I made a large book, approximately 1 metre long, from the Yarra collections and the tributaries inspired twelve smaller books.

Birrarung Journey

At each section of the river, I took a photo and have used these photographs to make cyanotype prints. I embedded leaves and seedpods into very fine handmade paper and waxed the sheets to create delicate works reminiscent of a botanist's specimen collection. I constructed canoes in a range of sizes, by folding ecoprinted papers (Kozo, Zerkall and handmade papers) and coating with wax.

Canoes

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© 2022 Gail Stiffe