Across time, 30 years on from my first solo exhibition at Contemporary Art Space (Platform) ‘In the garden. Time passes’ continues a dialogue with the core construction blocks of landscape representation – colour, form, movement, materiality. Rather than employing them to create pictorial landscape painting I use these tools to convey physical experiences within our natural ecosystems. In ephemeral collages I stitch together ideas and questions I have about gardens. How are these layers of paper accumulations of undergrowth and underground? Are the painted fragments tacked to the scratched wooden board a map of a garden’s composition from above? Rubbings of tree bark on large sheets of washi paper made in a Japanese cedar forest are folded over and over. They are covered in part by thicker paper on which colourful lines dash and meander, and mono-printed blotches of paint spread densely, all sewn through with fine cotton thread. Instead of creating illusion these materials, colours, marks and compositions map out relationships of matter, movement, living interactions, time and space that I experience in the garden.
The works of this exhibition are largely inspired by an artsACT funded research trip to Japan in 2024, where qualities of Japanese garden design and philosophy opened my practice to new modes of investigation.
Image credit: Anne-Marie Jean, ‘Shakkei’, 2026, watercolour, pencil, paper, wire, wood board. 61 x 42.5cm. Photo: Brenton McGeachie
For more information click here
