This series of works are made from used and repurposed Handee paper towel from the artist’s kitchen processes, further stained with kitchen scraps, garden plants, and rusty nails. The material is then meticulously cut and assembled using a variety of mixed media techniques inspired by domestic architectural motifs and quilting traditions. The palette evokes the bruised, wounded body, and each work is a comment on the normalisation of violence in homes throughout this country.

The brand slogan of Handee paper towel is ‘made to cope with anything you can throw at it’. The implicit personification in the use of the word ‘cope’ and the suggestion of violence in ‘throw at it’ strikes the artist as deeply troubling. This language reflects a broader societal issue, raising questions about how we address family violence when our brand messages normalise violence in the home.

The transformation of mundane materials into art challenges perceptions of value and invites consideration of how everyday objects and stories can carry deeper meanings and provoke critical thought about power dynamics, trauma, and resilience in our collective consciousness.

Through meticulous exploration of the structural limits and aesthetic possibilities of this fragile and unstable everyday material, the works offer us a poignant examination of life’s expectation of resilience amidst its inherent vulnerabilities and uncertainties.