Artist statement
My practice begins with light as something unstable, untouchable, and impossible to fully contain. I am interested in the way light moves through objects such as stained glass, creating fragments, shadows, and reflections that exist only for a brief moment before dissolving again. Influenced by phenomenological ideas of perception, particularly those of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I see light not simply as illumination but as an experience that shapes how we psychologically and physically encounter space.This interest first developed through a project inspired by dance, where I explored the traces left behind by moving bodies. I became fascinated by how movement is never fully fixed-it appears, disappears, and leaves temporary afterimages in space. Drawing on Jungian ideas of light, shadow, order, and chaos, I began to understand light as something that reveals instability rather than clarity. Shadows became equally important within the work, acting as in-between spaces between the conscious and unconscious self. Artists such as James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson, and Anthony McCall influenced my understanding of light as atmosphere, architecture, and bodily encounter rather than theatrical effect.
As my practice developed, I shifted from painting into projection, digital animation, and installation because static surfaces no longer reflected the ideas I was trying to communicate. My 3D animations are designed to follow the abstract behaviour of light itself: fluid, unstable, repetitive, and constantly transforming. This is a conscious decision within the production process. Rather than using animation to imitate reality, I use it to construct impossible environments that feel simultaneously organic and artificial. I create these animations through layered digital simulations, projected onto mesh, translucent fabrics, and reflective materials that allow the image to fragment across surfaces rather than remain fixed. Projection placement is also important: images are projected through and behind structures so that they dissolve into architecture and surround the viewer. As the viewer moves, their body interrupts the projection and casts shadows, briefly collapsing the illusion and returning them to awareness of physical reality.
My later installations expanded into deep-space inspired environments influenced by ideas surrounding the sublime, neuroarchitecture, and immersive digital space. Nebula became symbolic origins of light and cosmic formation, but also metaphors for disorientation and perceptual instability. Through colour, scale, enclosure, and slow-moving projections, I aim to create environments where viewers feel both immersed and psychologically unsettled.
Did You Water the Plants developed from the idea of becoming so absorbed within an artificial environment that one forgets basic physical responsibilities, symbolised through the neglected act of watering plants. The central tree gradually shifts from blue to red, marking a movement between calm immersion and psychological tension. Butterflies repeatedly appear within the installation both as distraction devices that capture attention and as symbols of transformation. Their looping movement reflects a condition where everything changes while simultaneously remaining the same. The wire mesh tree acts as a porous boundary between the physical and digital world, interrupting the projection and exposing the structure behind the illusion. Influences from Ryoji Ikeda and teamLab informed my exploration of the digital sublime and the overwhelming nature of artificial environments.
Have you ever been in a waiting area or transitional place where everything feels strangely dreamlike, suspended, and unreal? I realised that this condition of existing “in-between” is central to my work. Refraction, shadows, dance, digital environments, butterflies, and deep-space imagery all operate within forms of liminality: spaces where perception, identity, and time become unstable. Influenced by liminality theory, particularly the writings of Victor Turner, as well as Jungian ideas surrounding the instability between order and chaos, consciousness and shadow, my installations attempt to construct threshold spaces where viewers may become momentarily lost within illusion before being brought back to reality through interruption, shadow, and bodily awareness. Phenomenological ideas proposed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty also inform the work, particularly his understanding of perception as something embodied and experienced through movement and spatial encounter rather than passive observation.
In a contemporary context increasingly shaped by immersive technologies, algorithmic systems, and overwhelming digital stimulation, the work reflects how easily attention and perception can become absorbed within artificial environments. References to artists such as Olafur Eliasson, James Turrell, and teamLab have influenced my understanding of light and digital space as immersive psychological environments rather than purely visual spectacles. My current installation develops this through a wire mesh architectural arch positioned at the centre of the wall, functioning as a literal portal or threshold. A projected 3D animation moves through and across the structure, fragmenting into shadows and reflections as the viewer passes in front of it. The viewer’s body disrupts the projection, momentarily collapsing the illusion and creating an awareness of their physical presence within the space.
References:
Eliasson, Olafur. Experience. London: Phaidon Press, 2018.
Ikeda, Ryoji. Ryoji Ikeda. Paris: Éditions Dilecta, 2018.
Jung, Carl. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
McCall, Anthony. Anthony McCall: Solid Light Works. New York: Eye Museum and Charta, 2005.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Donald Landes. London: Routledge, 2012.
teamLab. teamLab: Continuity. Melbourne: NGV Australia, 2022.
Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1969.
Turrell, James. James Turrell: A Retrospective. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013.