Recovery – the Flood Objects Project – 2012

 

A touring exhibition which included Dogwood Crossing – Miles, Gympie Art Gallery, Rockhampton Art Gallery and The Vera Wade Gallery, Brisbane.

I made a series of paintings based on objects which were salvaged during the 2011 floods by people in my own community of Goodna and the surrounding areas of Ipswich and Brisbane. I asked them to nominate precious objects redeemed from the flood waters. Objects that came back to them, objects that were salvaged from the mud, objects that held some measure of memory and value.

They become sacred, containing grief, loss, redemption and hope. A lament on the transience of all things, they were painted as modern day Dutch still life Vanitas or Flower Paintings, venerated because of all the human experiences they represent. I painted them as precious artifacts, on a plinth or in a niche or the lone item on an empty shelf, alluding to the things lost that are no more.