'A Maximalist Escape' is a sensorial experience that invites the viewer to embrace maximalism and escape from lockdown to the rich environment that inhabits Coffs Harbour. It is the exploration of collaging a range of mediums, creating texture and manipulating materials to replicate the subtropical landscape of Coffs harbour.
Context
Over the duration of the year, my practice has been heavily influenced by the social aftermath of covid 19.
In a time where social distancing has become the norm and face masks are mandatory in confined spaces. Human connection has evolved into a translation that is either performed online or at a safe distance covering the mouth, hiding basic human expressions.
Young adults, such as myself, have adapted to spending more time in the home, instead of living our youth, traveling, and experiencing the world. Disconnecting more and more from the outside world, real human connection, and the inability to travel and visit family.
Sparking new trends amongst young creatives to bring life into their spaces, introducing Millennial maximalism, focussing on upcycling vintage and filling a room with your favourite things, similar to a grandma's 1970's living room.
THEME
In uncertain times and yearlong border restrictions, I escaped Melbourne and returned to my hometown, Coffs Harbour.
A place where the rainforest meets the sea, filling me with an endless abundance of inspiration for new designs.
Spending the majority of the past 2 years in Coffs, I found a new appreciation for its rich environment and felt inspired to commemorate this through a maximalist homewares collection.
- Filling a room with my favourite things, inspired by my favourite things and allowing viewers to escape to coffs -
Community of practice
Mother The Mountain
Meg Walters
Sisters, Julia and Anastasia Vanderbyl
run a regenerative farm together in
the Byron hinterland. Julia creates
artwork that explores the relationship
between human shapes and characteristics
with the natural environment using fluid brushtrokes.
Anastasia is a fashion designer who recycles Julia's Canvases into corsets and jackets.
(Julia Vanderbyl, 2021)
(Julia Vanderbyl, 2020)
Michelle Morin
Michelle Morin is based in Maine, America. She combines complex motifs with simpler shapes, lines and colours to contrast all the different forms
of nature.
Walters paints landscapes and figurative drawings that
combine memories of her home in Bermuda and landscapes of northern NSW. She is inspired by the ocean, Land and works with themes of interconnectedness, nostalgia and escapsim.
Lisa Lampshades
Inspired by Florence Givens retro apartment, specifically the pink lamp in her living room, designed by Lisa Lamsphades. Lisa designs maximalist lampshades, using a range of different fabrics, shapes and trim. She designs her lampshades to be sold on ebay, and designs bespoke, allowing customers to design their own lampshades.
(motherthemounatin, 2021)
Boys Who Share The Same Poison, 2020
Acrylic on canvas,
146 x 97cm
FIRST AUTUMN
Oil on Timber Panel00 x 00cm
Coastal Tulips
Acrylic gouache on paper
18” x 24
(Florence given, 2021)
(Lisa Lampshades, 2021)
Collaged artists and techniques for the chair layout
Upcycling an old chair
Working with the original fabric, painting directly onto the upholstery and stitching down collaged materials.
Collaging scrap material and creating a mix of textures through burning to make indentations, smoothing compound paste to replicate the sandlike feeling and gathering material to create all the layers of sand.
Burning scrap polyester fabric to make rainforest rocks and unpicking threads from the original fabric to replicate grass.
Building up the formations of the dams, creeks and waterfalls above the rocks.
Collaging mixed mediums on the sky, to replicate the cloudiness of the sky in the rainforest.
Process
Collaging a mix of mediums: recycling scrap material through dyeing with gouache, embroidery, and creating new textures using moulding and compound paste.
Created the ocean part of the chair. Replicating the harshness of waves through compound paste.
Creating moss through felting and dyeing felt in a gouache and water solution.
Manipulating and embroidering scrap materials and collaging with mixed mediums to replicate the muddiness of the dams, creeks and movement of the waterfalls.
Building the rainforest through manipulating scrap velvet, calico, embroidery, mixed mediums, and felting the roots of the rainforest tree.
Creating the base layer for the sky through smoothing a thick layer
of compound paste.
Stapling the fabric back onto the chair.
Introducing swatches of the old upholstery and refining elements on the chair.
Chair of Eden
