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Artist Statement

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I take an ecological approach within my multidisciplinary art practice. I use eco-autobiography as an overarching concept through which I investigate memories of self and place to achieve an intertextuality between internal and external reflection. I am drawn to the garden as a site which elicits past memories through sense impressions on the mind.  I reflect on voluntary and involuntary memories and the processes of recollection to inform my artworks.  

 

Gardening facilitates an exchange between human and nature, providing a protected physical space where one can undertake rituals of care. Repetitive garden labour beings about reciprocal care of site and self, building wellness and increased ecological function. Rebuilding a quiet place in disturbing times alongside manual activity allows the mind to work through dormant thoughts. Cells tend to networks within the mind, weeding out weak connections and fertilising, gardening the mind. Sense impressions are recorded, fed by imagination, and imprinted through symbiosis with nature. Gardening is considered a parallel creative practice, elements of which are brought directly into the artworks.

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I honour produce that connects me to nature, through ceramic casting, recreating them in porcelain, and printing onto the surface with freshly harvested botanicals. I recollect experiences of the past through combinations of old and new. Garden plants and produce are a reoccurring theme in my installations. 

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My practice draws on quiet activism through domestic craft and labour as a counter to the climate crisis and food insecurity, where the garden exists as an extension of the domestic realm. 

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I acknowledge that I live and work on the Country of the Kaurna people. I pay my respects to Elders past and present. I recognise and respect their culture heritage, traditions and relationships to Country and acknowledge they are of continued importance to living Kaurna people living today. This land was never ceded.

©2024 Stephanie Doddridge

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