BLOODY CONSUMPTION I, II & III

2021. Wood and discarded materials. Various sizes

MIXED MEDIA SCULPTURES

Penelope’s childhood was spent learning crafts and in the ‘flow’ of various needlecrafts such as crochet, knitting, and sewing, passed down intergenerationally through the maternal line in her family.

When Penelope was invited to participate in the exhibition ‘FLOW’ with 15 other artists as part of a satellite exhibition on woodcraft, as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial. Penelope used this as an opportunity to reconnect to this past by learning a new women’s craft - beading - from her mother.

The timing of the creation of these works coincided with the devasting Wooroloo bushfires in Perth, Western Australia, and was less than a year after the largest ever catastrophic fires on the east coast of Australia.

With this destruction of forests in mind, the works combine charred wood found after the 2021 Wooroloo bushfire with beading remnants and discarded op-shop jewelry. The works reflect upon the Anthropocene. What materials we value, what we throw away mindlessly and what is destroyed due to climate change. Discarded jewelry was disassembled and reassembled to create a series of works in which the materials of excess consumption ooze from a burnt-out nature.

Bloody consumption I, II & III

Evocative of blood seeping from wounds, a natural sight reflecting borer attack in Eucalyptus, this wall sculpture series features beaded elements reimagining the sap as pollution and wounds expelling microplastics; the throwaway objects of consumption. The beading seeps from the charred wood expressing the human attack on our local ecology.

Materials: Charred Jarrah, glass beads, plastic beads, beading thread, and varnish.