Deal Island, Bass Strait photograph

From 2002 to 2003 I spent a year sailing around Australia. This experience was the inspiration for a series of kinetic sculptures and paintings exhibited in Bondi Pavilion Gallery in 2007. Using a number of mediums, Circumnavigation brought together watercolours, gouache paintings, drawings, mobiles and wire sculptures to explore the life of an ocean traveller in constant motion.

Many of the works were created on the water, bearing the mark of the voyage with splashes and lurching lines as the yacht pitched and bounced through the sea. Others were created in times of quiet reflection in the studio, reminiscing about the journey.

The kinetic sculptures of bathers and fish interacted playfully with the paintings, constantly drifting and turning, evoking the endless shifting of the sea. Much of the subject matter also illustrated the fun and frivolous side to the world of water through the collection of paintings with mobiles including “Granny Float” and “Freestyle” in a series titled “21 ways of moving through water”.