Becoming Now
Becoming Now opens at Belconnen Arts Centre, 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen ACT 2617, on Friday 22 May and continues until Sunday 5 July 2026.
Plants form the central language of this exhibition, acting as vessels for the human journey. The work explores themes of endurance, presence, and emotional resonance, using botanical forms to reflect lived experience.
Working across charcoal drawing, stitched textiles, and photographic silk pieces, I examine the tension between strength and vulnerability. Stitching both interrupts and reinforces the surface—tracing, holding, and at times repairing the image. Layered fabrics, appliqué, and mark-making create tactile works that carry a sense of weight and accumulation.
The flowers themselves hold particular significance. Each carries an associated meaning—often linked to empathy, memory, or quiet emotional states. These symbolic readings offer a gentle counterpoint to the physicality of the work, inviting a more intimate engagement.
Together, the works move between observation and embodiment, surface and depth. They suggest that human experience is layered and evolving, shaped by connection, memory, and time—held within forms that are both grounded and expressive.
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Faded Beauty: Pumpkin Bloom 2026 Hand embroidery on muted pigment photographic print on silk. The folded bloom suggests shelter, vulnerability, and quiet resilience. Stitched contours trace the passage of time, where protection and tenderness hold transformation within fragile form.
Faded Beauty: Hibiscus 2026 Hand embroidery on muted pigment photographic print on silk. The open hibiscus holds delicacy and endurance. Stitched marks move across its surface, suggesting vulnerability, resilience, and the quiet persistence of form through change.
Faded Beauty: Petunia 2025 Hand embroidery on muted pigment photographic print on silk. Gentle white petals stitched with fine radiating threads hold quiet presence. Stillness and fragility gather here, where fading carries its own luminous beauty and quiet renewal.
Faded Beauty: Trumpet Bloom 2026 Hand embroidery on muted pigment photographic print on silk. Pale stitched blossoms drift through layered foliage, their soft forms suspended between presence and disappearance. Fine threads trace echoes of light and memory, holding a quiet sense of passage.
Faded Beauty: Calla 2026 Hand embroidery on muted pigment photographic print on silk. The calla holds grace within fragility. Its stitched surface traces memory and presence, where beauty is not lost but gently carried forward in quiet endurance.
Faded Beauty: Hydrangea 2026 Hand embroidery on muted pigment photographic print on silk. Soft pink stitching gathers across hydrangea petals, tracing memory, tenderness, and the quiet persistence of beauty. Fragility and presence coexist in luminous, gently shifting stillness.
After Image 2026 Appliqué (vintage chintz, broderie perse), reverse side of fabric used. Hand stitched on recycled cloth with all-over stitching. A lingering trace remains after the first encounter. Stitch holds the fading imprint of form, suggesting presence, loss, and the delicate residue left by looking and remembering.
Returning Detail 2026 Appliqué (vintage chintz, broderie perse), reverse side of fabric used. Hand stitched on recycled cloth with all-over stitching. Fragments once softened by time begin to re-emerge. Through stitch and layered form, recollection sharpens, allowing small details to surface and reassemble into something gently recognisable.
Echoed Form 2025 Appliqué (vintage chintz, broderie perse), reverse side of fabric used. Hand stitched on recycled cloth with all-over stitching. Repeated shapes and stitched contours create a visual resonance, where memory is carried through absence, repetition, and the quiet persistence of forms half-remembered.
Held in Memory 2026 Appliqué (vintage chintz, broderie perse), reverse side of fabric used. Hand stitched on recycled cloth with all-over stitching. A sustained remembrance, where stitch lingers over image and form. Extended across a longer format, memory unfolds slowly, holding tenderness, duration, and the quiet persistence of what remains.
Soft Unfolding 2025 | Charcoal, pastel and stitch on Awagami washi Hibiscus petals fold inward, their stitched surface suggesting vulnerability and release, where change unfolds slowly and form softens while remaining present.
Lingering Presence 2026 Charcoal, pastel and stitch on Awagami washi. Petunia forms emerge softly through charcoal and stitch, where memory and tenderness hold the image in place, allowing presence to remain beyond the moment.
Becoming Form 2026 Charcoal, pastel and stitch on Awagami washi The calla lily holds a quiet sense of transformation, where charcoal and stitch shape the form over time, suggesting becoming as a gentle and continuous process.
Still Becoming 2026 Hand-dyed silk lace fragments from a vintage lace collar appliquéd on hand-dyed vintage serviette with hand stitching. Lace flowers rest within patient stitch, suspended between fragility and renewal. The surface suggests quiet becoming through relationship, memory, and enduring care.
Enduring Trace 2026 Hand-dyed silk lace fragments from a vintage lace collar appliquéd on hand-dyed vintage serviette with hand stitching. Two lace blooms rest on a well-used domestic cloth, suggesting companionship and shared resilience. Stitching evokes connection, tenderness, and the strength found in gentle support.
Quiet Reach 2026 Hand-dyed silk lace fragments from a vintage lace collar appliquéd on hand-dyed vintage handkerchief with hand stitching. A flowing lace motif moves across the surface, suggesting movement and quiet reach. Repaired vintage handkerchief and stitching reflect memory, continuity, and what quietly persists.
Gathering Quietly 2026 Monoprint and hand stitching on Wenzhou Pi paper scroll Impressions of wild violets accumulate like fragments of memory, their stitched echoes suggesting gentle transformation, continuity, and the unfolding presence of time.
Gathering Slowly 2026 Monoprint and hand stitching on Wenzhou Pi paper scroll Repeated printed wild violets gather through time, drifting between memory and presence, where change unfolds slowly through layered marks, rhythm, and quiet becoming.