Cherry, Lorenz (AUS, Tasmania),
Paper Bride – Faith, Hope, Departure
PAPER BRIDE – FAITH, HOPE, DEPARTURE
Faith, Hope, Departure is about migration and the courage and resilience of my mother and all the women like her, who left everything behind to begin a new life in Australia
ARTIST STATEMENT
CHERRY LORENZ
I make art to slow down and pay attention to the things people usually pass by. In a culture driven by fast trends and constant online influence, objects are quickly replaced and forgotten. I am drawn to what remains behind like discarded textiles, ceramics, second-hand materials, and domestic objects that carry traces of everyday life. My work centres on stories of home and identity, layered with the histories of the objects I collect and rework into new narratives.
My process begins with collecting. I love op shops, Facebook Marketplace, and roadside finds. I work with old furniture, glass, leather, ceramics, textiles, and paper. Anything that sparks curiosity or connection. I spend time with these objects, allowing their existing stories to guide the making process. This approach lets me work slowly and intuitively, responding to each material’s history rather than forcing it into a fixed outcome. Techniques connected to traditional craft like mending, layering, undoing, and reassembling to recreate a transformation. The finished works often sit between sculpture and installation, creating spaces where objects feel familiar yet altered.
Growing up in a traditional European household shaped how I understand making. Practical skills such as repairing, saving, and reusing were part of everyday life, alongside craft practices like knitting, sewing, and crochet. These experiences continue to guide my approach, grounding my work in ideas of resourcefulness, cultural memory, and inherited knowledge. By bringing handmade processes into a contemporary art context, I question cycles of consumption that encourage constant disposal while distancing us from the value of labour and materials.
Through transforming pre-loved objects, I aim to create moments of recognition where a sense that something once ordinary, can carry emotional weight. My work reflects on memory, migration, belonging, and home, speaking through materials rather than explanation. By reimagining what has been overlooked, I hope to remind viewers that meaning often exists in everyday objects, and that care, history, and human connection can still be found in the things we choose to keep.