My Family’s Bones 

Each drawing in My Family’s Bones focuses on a different bone or skeletal joint that shows the signs of past injury or medical intervention; joint replacements, fractures that knitted together with the bone askew, cracked ribs, a craniotomy. These markers of our time alive are inscribed into our bones as evidence of misadventure, tragedy and healing.

The drawings speculate on an alternative future for my bones and those of my extended family, in which they are scattered across the benthic zone, deep on the ocean floor. Slowly, bottom feeders inhabit these forms, transforming our bones into micro-architectures. There is a symbolic optimism proposed in this work, in the notion that humans could enact a gainful offering to marine lifeforms in the future, as opposed to the one-sided extraction of natural resources. There is also dark humour and a measure of comfort, imagining our bones slowly dispersed throughout watery realms, providing habitat to flora and fauna.

Each marine lifeform is a different benthic species that is native or endemic to Australia, and most are animals that I have seen when I am free diving. The term ‘bottom feeder’ has a derogatory connotation when applied to humans, but here it is claimed back for its original meaning; marine invertebrates existing within the balanced circuit of an ecosystem, where all organic matter is used to sustain life – specially the bits that sink to the ocean floor. The species include: Crystal crab (Chaceon albus), otherwise commonly known in Australia as Snow Crab; the WA endemic Broadgilled hagfish (Eptatretus cirrhatus) which has 6 vestigial eyes, 6 barbels around mouth, 6 or 7 gill openings; Mauve-tipped Cerianthus tube anemones; the Mosaic sea star (Plectaster decanus) native to southern Australia; the Australian Gloomy Octopus (Octopus tetricus) native to Australia and New Zealand; and the Tiger Snout or Western Australia Sea Horse (Hippocampus subelongatus).

I use a chiaroscuro technique, bringing the forms out through light and dark and the intense application of graphite shading. The forms in My Family’s Bones are very defined and the surface of the paper has a dark glimmer from the weight and tension of graphite shading. I want to generate an atmosphere somewhere between nature documentary, horror and magic realism, and to make the forms feel like they are pushing their way out of the dark.

Artist’s statement, from online interview with Art Collector Magazine for the September 2022 edition.