Where did the interest in working with maps come from? 

I’ve always loved maps. I was chief navigator on road trips, poring over paper maps and imagining the places we would travel to and considering how they were represented relative to reality when we arrived.  When we ventured into unmapped territory I’d sometimes draw my own maps, perhaps I was a wannabe cartographer.  Even now I can spend hours studying a map, travelling in my mind without going anywhere at all.  But maps can only tell us so much, they show us roads, boundaries, contours, landmarks and cardinal points, but they can’t tell us what if feels like to be somewhere, or the memories or experiences we attache to a place.  They capture a particular representation of a landscape, but our experience of that place is something more personal.  That’s really where the idea for Mapping Truth began.

How do you turn an old paper map into a woven artwork? 

For this exhibition, I’ve been working with old paper maps, cutting and tearing them into strips and reweaving them on a loom, combining the paper with paper yarn.  It’s been a wonderfully slow and meditative process, giving me time to reflect on the places Ive been, the memories they hold and how my feelings about those places have changed over time. 

As the maps are deconstructed and rewoven, familiar roads, rivers and place names are rearranges into something quite different.  They become coloured, textured and sometimes abstract compositions.  I love that the original geography is still there, but it’s no longer the only story. Through weaving I’m exploring something less tangible, the experience of being in those places and the impressions they leave us with.

Why did you call the exhibition Mapping Truth? 

The title Mapping Truth comes from he idea that we all carry our own understanding of a place, shaped by our experiences, memories and emotions.  Two people can stand in exactly the same place at the same time and experience it completely differently.  

And even our own truth of a place is not static.  How we feel about somewhere today might be quite different from how we felt about it may years ago.  We return to places as different versions of ourselves, with new experiences shaping the way we see them. 

I’m interested in those moments in time, the impressions we hold of a place, how they stay with us but also how they can shift and evolve.  A map might locate us geographically but it can’t capture where we are emotionally or what a particular place means to us in that moment in time.

What would you like people to get out of seeing the exhibition? 

I hope people come along with a sense of curiosity and enjoy exploring the work.  From a distance they may see colour, texture, pattern and abstraction, but as they move in closer familiar place names, roads, rivers and landmarks might begin to emerge.  Perhaps they recognise somewhere they have been, somewhere they grew up or a place that holds a particular memory for them. But they also don’t necessarily need to recognise the geography to connect with the work.  I’’m just as interested in feelings the woven works may evoke.  

More than anything I’d love the exhibition to encourage people to reflect on their own connections to place, the moments that have stayed with them, the people and experiences they have shared those places with and how their understanding of those places may have changed over time.  I’m inviting people to consider what their own truth of a place is, in this moment in time.  

What does exhibiting at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery mean to you? 

With my family’s connection to Maryborough (my Grandfather was Mayor in the early 60’s when the borough was declared a City) and now having lived back in the region for over 15 years, presenting my first solo exhibition at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery feels particularly special.  

Some of the maps I’ve woven are from Maryborough and surrounding district, places that hold memory and meaning for me.  

There’s something lovely about presenting these maps back to the community, knowing that other people will have entirely different experiences and memories of those same places.  I’m really looking forward to hearing the stories and connections the work may evoke.