ROOM THREE

Held Through Movement, 2026, variable sized 20m roll of jute, acrylic & Birrarung water on jute. 

Photography by Alice Hutchinson

Shifting Place, 2026, 24 panels - 23 x 30.5cm. Acrylic & Birrarung water on mixed media.

Photography by Alice Hutchinson

Shifting Place, Detail, 2026, 24 panels - 23 x 30.5cm. Acrylic & Birrarung water on mixed media. Photography by Alice Hutchinson

Shifting Place, Detail, 2026, 24 panels - 23 x 30.5cm. Acrylic & Birrarung water on mixed media. Photography by Alice Hutchinson

VCA Artspace

Southbank

August 2026

Dip, ripple, exhale, chirp, scuff, beam of sunlight, splash, muffled traffic, scratch of branches, flap, gurgle, leaves dipping into water, glide, bend, paddle, reach into light, breath, sharp scent, skim across the surface, murky thick liquid.

The river is alive.

Moving through Birrarung/Yarra River in my kayak, I experience a heightened awareness of my body and the surrounding landscape. The rhythm of paddling, physical exertion and sensory encounters create a particular state of attention. I sketch while moving, making marks and notations in response to these sensations, and collect river water to take back to my studio.

My embodied drawing practice explores the relationship between bodily movement, landscape and shifting states of consciousness. Through drawing, I attempt to return to the internal focus I experience on the river, where external distractions recede and pathways open between memory, imagination and associative thought. I am interested in how drawing allows me to move between focused awareness and a more fluid internal state, creating space for daydreaming and unexpected ideas to emerge. The threshold where landscape meets water, and the world held beneath the surface, becomes a metaphor for these shifting states of mind.

In the studio, I work with a 20-metre length of jute laid horizontally across the floor. Sitting within the material, I use collected river water and diluted paint to stain, splash and spread pigment through gestures involving my whole body. I respond intuitively to emerging colours, marks and impressions, allowing water, gravity, chance and the material itself to guide the process.

Installation becomes a continuation of drawing. Through twisting, folding, dropping, gathering and suspending the jute within the gallery, the work extends into three-dimensional space. Alongside it, 27 smaller panels capture fragments of experience and recollections of time spent on the water, creating another continuum of drawing.

My research engages with Hydrocene thinking, particularly the understanding of water as an active, interconnected and transformative force. Rather than considering the river as a passive landscape to be represented, I approach it as a collaborator whose movements and material qualities shape both my experience and the resulting work.

While grounded in concerns about climate change and the vulnerability of waterways, my practice seeks to offer an imaginative, sensorial encounter with the river. Through immersion, movement and material exploration, I hope to create space for wonder, connection and a deeper awareness of our relationship with water, our bodies and the environments we inhabit.