Artist Statement – July 2022
“Tree Creatures” – Arboreal Narratives, 2022, Bankstown Art Centre
Acknowledging trees integral interactions with terrain;
A seed falls to earth, is washed by rain or dropped by a bird, cast by the wind, and spreads roots into earth /rock crevices, even rooftops, so establishing its tenuous germination to survive.
In journeying landscape Farquharson is drawn to local colour, texture and curious elements of place, so utilising it to create sculptural Tree Creatures with “found“ tree elements.
Gathering in various bush, coastal and local landscapes, Farquharson has engaged with these natural elements from trees; (feathers, seed pods, twigs, sea kelp roots etc) bound and twined with found & natural fibres to articulate the various arboreal environments.
Acknowledging the interactive relationship between significant trees and the environment in which they grow, Farquharson seeks to identify the nature and impact of the substrata. Deriving both pigments and plant material from walks and explorations in site specific and significant natural environments, in creating a body of work comprised of arboreal narratives with found ‘twigs, tubers, feathers, native flowers, seed-pods, bark, leaves, roots & earths entwined to create whimsical TREE CREATURES
Amanda Farquharson, Creative Artist
Short Biography
C.V. 2022 – Amanda Farquharson, Creative Artist
Graduating from UNSW with Drawing M.A. in 2014, after a 20 year career in the arts, Amanda Farquharson has developed a creative and organic practice exploring landscape through disciplines of Sculpture and Drawing.
Curious of unusual deposits and “found” elements in nature has led Farquharson to exploring & re-composing sculptural “Tree Creatures” through various traditional techniques of binding/ weaving/ twining.
Her Works on Paper describe the literal and emotive landscape through folding and imprinting curious “found” elements with local pigment pours and plant based eco-dyes as “Paper-play”.
Using this as a means of loosely and organically mapping country, when overdrawing with locally sourced & found ochres, stones, shells and stick or reed pens.
Farquharson is an active member of the Tree Veneration Society– an artist collective, headed by Louise Fowler Smith- ex UNSW, and has engaged in numerous collaborative TVS exhibitions, events and sculptural installations 2013-2022
Exhibitions
Annual Beams Festivals- Chippendale, 2013-2018
Tree Veneration Society collective- Glenaeon Annual 2018
Arboreal Narrative 2019- Grace Cossington Smith Gallery
Arboreal Narrative 2020- Sheffer Gallery
Little Things Art Prize, finalist 2021- Saint Cloche
Beyond Human -Tree Veneration Society 2022 – Chrissie Cotter Gallery
Performance
in conjunction with Janet Laurence, “Requiem for Trees” Sydney Festival 2021
Paddington Reservoir Gardens and Spelling Seeds in Eucalyptusdom
Workshops
Science in the Swamp- Centennial Park
Science in the Park – Australian Botannical Gardens Sydney & Mount Annan
Summerama- Bondi Pavillion 2018
National Tree Day- 2017, 2018, 2019 Bronte Gully
Instagram: @amanda.m.farquharson
