This Woman Moves Through Water was created over 140 hours during Waring Wombat Season, when the days darken, and the night lengthens. This season in Naarm, when life eases to a slow crawl, is a time for contemplation, for moving slowly, and for rest. It is a time for dreaming, the surrealism of this dreamworld spilling out over the plinth and onto the ground. The grasses used to make the work speak to another type of Dreaming, a consideration of the artist’s identity as a mixed-race First Nations artist searching for her place.

This work, movement captured in a still moment, embodies the extended physical stillness needed to create a woven work of this magnitude. It speaks both to the time spent in meditative creation, and to the fluidity of inner thoughts that flourish during periods of still reflection. This Woman Moves Through Water is the embodiment of fluid thought in this act of stillness – the slowness of time spent in meditative creation revealed in each of the artist’s stitches.

Handwoven in Naarm.