Works featured in Solastalgia: an antidote at Fabrik Arts and Heritage, Lobethal 2020

Hawthorn

gouache, watercolour & ink on aerial photograph 2019                                  

“These works were created as part of an artist in residency at Flinders Medical Centre in 2019. Inspired by the book The Night Life of Trees by Bhajju Shyam, Durga Bai and Ram Singh Urveti I have created eight tree portraits. My portraits reference certain properties of the trees I was inspired by.

During my research I found my interest lay in the spiritual and personal connections people and animals have to trees, as well as pharmacological and medicinal properties. Alongside the scientific information, I was interested in the 'unknown' information, the other parts of the plant. What we don't know, and the way scientific and Western thinking like to separate and compartmentalise the individual parts of knowledge, and subsequently the plants.

I enjoyed exploring this way of thinking, a process that suggests we are all connected to the plant; we are the plant. Thinking about Indigenous knowledge and relationship to country has also informed these works. They reference the deep knowledge and understanding Aboriginal people have with this land. This knowledge and connection is often in contrast with colonial beliefs and ways of thinking.”

Laura Wills

For more information on Laura’s work, visit: https://www.laurawills.com.au/