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C O M P O S T I N G . . .
VCA Graduate Exhibition
Wurundjeri Land neighbouring Bunurong Land, Southbank, 2021.

Composting...
is a body of work that was co-created with a worm farm compost system. It explores the ways in which my art practice intra-acts with nutrient cycles at the site of a compost heap. The composting of organic waste through a worm farm forms a rich humus, from which 3D scanning technologies, digital rendering, microscopic filming and the animation of organic materials were used to form an evolving collective of digital compost. Composting... investigates the cross-pollination of matter from these two organic and digital compost systems as they feed into each other via recursive processes in the re-circulation of materials. It explores the potential for closed-loop systems in art making practices.

Composting… is an abridged title for this body of work. Explore the extended poetic title >> here 

In the exhibition visitors enter into a darkened space. Television screens are suspended like grow lights above a cluster of soft sculptures on which you can recline. Looking up at videos of digital worms involves reorientating to their/our earthly homes, your body now contained within its techno-compost workings. The soft sculptures are made using 3D scans of the skins of vegetable scraps. These digital renders are printed onto cotton fabric and sewn to form soft pillows filled with sugar cane mulch. Their scent is fragrent and sweet. Laying down beneath the screens, a soft textural soundscape accompanies you, a recording of compost critters made using a contact microphone. In an adjacent space, microscopic footage of compost traces decomposition through the slippage of pixels in a video projection (see this video installation here). Together, these works form a lively assemblage that traces my relationships within a multi-species compost community.

Images: Composting... installation view, VCA Graduate Exhibition, 2021.
Video: Nutrient Cycling, selected video as seen in Composting... 2021.