2024 MAJOR AWARD WINNER $5000
Baldwin, Sally (UK) After the Bushfires: Regeneration
ABOUT THE work
Sally has undertaken two artist residencies in Australia, the first in 2019 in Curtin Springs, NT where she learned how to make paper from indigenous Australian grasses. The second was in Bilpin, NSW, arriving in February 2020 just after a summer of catastrophic bushfires. At the time Sally arrived, the fires were finally being fully extinguished.
Sally made work about the effects of the bushfires on the surrounding area. One section of the resulting installation was about the extraordinary regrowth of foliage on what looked like incredibly damaged trees. Sally revisits these ideas in After the Bushfires: Regeneration.
The piece is about how some of the most blackened and burnt trees started sprouting extraordinary fresh new growth after the fires in an amazing display of resilience.
The long dress is made of stitched, distressed paper with banksia pods stitched in. Burnt banksia pods were emblematic of the post bushfire scenes. The model will introduce the shawl with the coloured regrowth, draping it around the shoulders to imply the way the burnt trees regenerate after the bushfires.
MATERIALS
Dress - stitched paper. Banksia motifs free machine embroidered.
Headpiece and collar - ‘Lace’ made of woven thread dipped in paper pulp.
Shawl - stitched paper with banksia motifs for the back, with more of the ‘lace’ of woven green thread dipped in paper pulp laid on top, then overlaid with stitched paper motifs appliquéd on top. Velcro shoulder fastenings, paper raffia drawstring for bag.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sally is a textile artist based in Mid Devon in SW England. She makes two- and three-dimensional installation, collage and sculptural pieces using stitch, moulding and collage techniques and her favoured material are papers of all kinds, including handmade, and silk and silk fibres.
Her interest in botanical forms influenced her early work. More recently she has been looking at notions of fragility, both of our ecosystems and of the species that inhabit them, including ourselves. Her constructed textile pieces are often lacelike and ephemeral, and she uses stitched and deconstructed paper to create contemporary lace which also appears fragile and delicate.
Her early career was in fashion and she later moved into teaching in further and higher education. She now focuses entirely on her own work, exhibiting both at home and internationally.