(internal) Rivers, 2021, No Vacancy Gallery, VIC


words by Laura Stortenbecker

Is an instinctual and necessary collection. Each work documents the unknotting of specific emotions, a search for clarity in a feeling, and the artist’s untangling of both significant change and slow static days. 

A body is heavy with intention. The way they support, hold, pull apart and ache as our environment changes is a consequential response, it is mostly silent. A constant bounce between joy and despair. 

The creation of this work came from the artist’s willingness to let herself flow, to be carried into work that gives way to true feeling – a relinquishing of control and the expectation to resolve conflict. They are a gathering of things both soft and chaotic, hard and beautiful. 

Each painting demanded the artist give in and permit her body to work through complicated emotions. The hostile easing to soft in Gentle as Time Falls Apart, the tender cut of colour in It’s Not A Sad Thing moves towards acceptance. 

By breaking from the rigid expectations of self, (Internal) Rivers is a reflection of what it means to create from a place of empathy for your own intentions, to be loose, vivid and spontaneous, the artist’s understanding of her own despair and great joy, and how to make and move forward.