Saltwater VI

There is a place in my mind's eye where a house is perched on a cliff, as lightly as an insect. Where I have walked barefoot along a ridge top over sandstone and fallen banksia leaves, looking down through the angophora forest to see glimpses of the sea below. Through the forest and out into the heathland, thick with birds and bottle brush and whispering grasses tossed by the wind. Beyond that are the cliffs where waves break and pool over the rocks – and past that is the great sighing sea. This is my dream place – where I flee to in my mind to escape my noisy urban home – this is the Headland.

Headland is an exhibition of mobiles inspired the memory of a place. The works are meditations on the bush, the coastal heathland and waves breaking over rocks. The colour palette for the paper mobiles is drawn from the sea and the forest – flecks of cerulean and ultramarine amidst the ochres and umbers of the bush. The viewer becomes like a bower-bird, gathering the flecks of blue by glancing from one blue element to the next. This is the bushland, these are the colours that I grew up with.

In addition to 32 stainless steel and paper mobiles, which are intended for interior spaces, I have introduced mobiles that are designed for the outdoors. The mobiles from the 'Shoreline' and 'Waterline' series are free-standing and robust, made from copper, stone steel and bronze. The mobile elements are filled with a delicate web of hand-woven copper wire.