My paper works began with the idea of celebrating the beauty of artisanal and handmade papers by using them as a sculptural material. With an intrinsic value held in paper’s texture, colour, weight and history, rather than being merely a support to draw upon, this different way of looking at paper opens the possibility to explore the ephemeral, along with the ideas of craft practice, knowledge transference, and the unseen history embodied in these materials.

Paper can be cut, torn, folded and burned. It can be layered; some strata made translucent by waxing, made lacier with holes, or more precious with gold. In contrast to the welded joins common to the “man’s world” of metal sculpture, these works are held together with actions that echo generations of women's hands: the small, domestic acts of pinning, knotting, stitching, beading, weaving.

This body of work germinated from deep in my ancient store of handmade papers, collected from all over the globe. From there, a long-forgotten cache of handmade circles became gilded moons. The glowing orbs gathered flotsam from the studio; oddments such as casuarina roots, threads and beads woven together into talismans of hope and love, stitched into the holey, holy surface of cloud paper, and burned through in places, backed with ochre Lokta paper upon which sacred texts are traditionally written.

The Veiled Moon series explores what it is to be female — a fluid, open understanding of the otherness to which women have long been relegated. The moon governs tides, cycles, the expansion and contraction of the earth. She is rhythm and flow. Since the Enlightenment, veiled, hidden, pushed to the shadows. These works pierce the veil and look towards revelation.

This exhibit was displayed at Carriageworks for Sydney Contemporary 2025, Australia's premiere art fair.