Archive

August 7, 2024 In

Becoming a Garden 2023

Raw pigment, egg tempera, graphite on reclaimed wood
Sizes variable, between 20 – 78 cm l 8 – 30 inches

Sacred geometry coupled with graphite drawings of organic imaginings. Cutout circles of wood reclaimed from a family member’s dining room wainscotting. Sanded, filled, sanded, filled, sanded. Gessoed, and sanded again. Mapped out with compass and circular templates. Undercoats of colour, overcoats of graphite drawing. More layers. Sealed with matt and gloss medium

 

 

 

 

Becoming a Garden series in the studio

August 3, 2024 In

Life You Like A Prayer 2024

Embroidered shroud – macro photography transfer on reclaimed, pigment-dyed fabric, branches, leaves, butterflies, bird nest, feather-made bird, clay frog, soil
Installation size variable

Building on the idea of conversations between the known and unknown, possibility and stagnation and ultimately life and so-called death, this installation features a shroud as its focus.

The 226 x 112 cm l 89 x 44 in fabric piece is made from well-worn, reclaimed bedsheets hand-dyed with graphite and pigment, photo transfers of macro-photographed decaying plant-life hand-stitched with silk backing. It is suspended away from the wall and draped in front of a collection of tree branches, dried leaves, butterflies, stones, a bird nest with sleeping bird and a single clay frog who also appears to be sleeping.

Close to four hundred dots were embroidered with turquoise wool, spelling in braille the following lines from a poem by 13th-century mystic poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi.
‘I have come to drag you out of yourself and take you in my heart. I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had and lift you like a prayer to the sky.’

For me, these words encapsulate what it means to really see beneath and beyond the surface of our lives; to hold space for grief, loss and vulnerability; to embrace with all our senses the living and that which has passed on from the material world yet is held precious in our living memory.

 

 

Photography by Toni Hafkenscheid & the artist

August 3, 2024 In

One Hibiscus, Two Seasons 2023

Collected & dried hibiscus petals
Seven discs ranging in size from 7.4 to 53.3 cm l 3 to 21 in

 

For two consecutive summers I collected every flower with its richly pigmented petals from one single hibiscus plant situated within view from my studio. I carefully pressed and wrapped them individually in parchment paper huddled into a paper box. After pinning some of them to a wall in my work space, thinking ahead to the scheduled exhibition, I realized they would not survive too many trials of this process so I had the idea to sew each petal to cut out circular shapes from discarded screen door material.

After many attempts and iterations, this seems to have worked to highlight both the lush colour and delicate texture of the petals held together vulnerably but effectively.

 

 

 

Photography credit Toni Hafkenscheid

 

 

August 3, 2024 In

The Long Story 2023

Thousands of collected, sorted pine needles, found rope, embroidery thread, drift wood
304.8 x 58.4 x 58.4 cm l 120 x 23 x 23 in

 

From the Judith & Norman Art Gallery commissioned essay by Rosa Quintana Lillo:

“To build the sculpture The Long Story (2024), Humston wrapped thousands of collected and categorized pine needles with embroidery thread around an eight-foot length of flotsam rope hung from her studio ceiling. She began by sitting on the floor, then moved up the vertically situated rope, balancing on a ladder for the upper section. This piece marries vulnerability and boldness, perhaps presenting a perfect metaphor to describe our natural world. It speaks to Humston’s desire to work with existing organic materials that could be returned to the garden/forest/beach to be composted and not be made into more “stuff,” with manufactured products that end up in a landfill site. This work and others equally speak to Humston’s family history and stories told and passed down through generations. Her mother was a “war baby,” having been raised during and after the Second World War in England. She grew up with rations and learned early in life to preserve, reuse and repurpose everything. Transferring from mother to child, the ideas of sewing and mending, creating something beautiful from “waste” have also influenced and inspired Humston’s work.”