2026 New Work

1281

Pulp painting inspired by the novel The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall

Past Lives - India 1972

Cyanotype on handmade pulp painted paper, made using a negative of a photograph that I took whilst visiting India in 1972

Lotus

Pulp painting inspired by a visit to the Blue Lotus farm in Yarra Junctionexhibited in the Shanghai Paper Art Biennale

Memory Vest 2025

Memory Vest is constructed from repurposed business cards originally produced for the IAPMA conference held in Shanghai in 2025. On returning to Australia, I chose to remove the contact details and transform the unused cards into a new work, with the vest form emerging as a response to ideas of memory, presence, and connection. The cards themselves were made from recycled artworks and scraps of handmade paper, each incorporating a small sewn fragment of another collaborative work.

That earlier work originated as a group project in which participants soaked cotton garments in local water sources within five kilometres of their homes. The combined cotton was pulped in a Hollander beater and formed into sheets poured onto flywire, scaled to each participant’s height and width. These works were later embellished with personal narratives and exhibited in 2024 as part of a Papermakers of Victoria exhibition. My contribution was coated with shellac, inscribed with biographical text, then torn and sewn onto the cards. Suspended from a handmade paper coat hanger, the cards form a vest that holds layered histories.

Back

© 2026 Gail Stiffe