michelle walker
Michelle Walker, a Visual Artist with an art/nature/science background, delves deep into the profound bonds that unite us with our landscapes. Her art is a visceral response to Australia’s terrain, driven by 25+ years of environmental planning expertise. Michelle channels aerial perspectives, memories of place, and the essence of her materials into potent 2D and 3D artworks. Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Queensland College of Art in 2008, majoring in sculpture, she has consistently shown in group and joint exhibitions. Since 2020, Michelle has dedicated herself exclusively to her art practice. She has held two solo shows in Brisbane and a recent collaborative project, Ash, Mud & Tears, at Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina in 2023. Michelle regularly runs workshops including artist book-making, silversmithing and enamelling for jewellery throughout south-east Queensland and Northern Rivers.
Holding It Together II
The ‘Holding it Together’ series emerged in response to the 2022 floods, blending solid timber with sharp-edged metal seemingly spilling from an unseen interior. These works explore the uncertainty of what’s solid and the hidden aspects of internal landscapes, reflecting a heightened vulnerability and sense of exposure. The pressure to ‘hold it together’ persists, driven by government expectations and the likelihood of more frequent climate events in the future. This artwork serves as a thought-provoking commentary on the impact of climate change-triggered events on our landscapes and communities.
Can you describe your creative process from concept to completion?
The ‘Holding it Together’ sculpture series emerged in response to the 2022 floods. The phrase “barely holding it together,” frequently heard in conversations with friends and colleagues, reflected a loss of trust in the safety felt in a much-loved landscape.The original inspiration for the SWELL entry was 3 small sculptures, 13cm high developed as part of an exhibition ‘Ash, Mud & Tears’ in May 2023. I used salvaged timber, along with found materials and carpentry items gifted from my late father, with each sculpture telling a rich story in miniature. The large-scale ‘Holding it Together (trio)’ sculptures on show at SWELL 2024 continue this theme of blending solid timber with sharp-edged metal seemingly spilling from an unseen interior. I redesigned the works to be 1.6m high using the original small-scale sculptures as ‘maquettes’ and sourced waste timber and rusty metal for their construction. To make the metal components of the large-scale works, I learnt welding skills.
Where do you look for inspiration? What themes do you find most interesting?
The land is the source of inspiration for my art – the power and presence of natural places, the deep loss in its destruction. I’m agnostic when it comes to media, working with acrylics, oils, earth, charcoal, inks, metal, enamel and wood in my practice. For me the artwork communicates a deep-felt relationship with the earth, embodying a spirit of place and its energy. I create works as visual poems that read through metal and wood and earth of the sacredness I feel in places and the valuable learnings I have gained directly from the land. The work speaks of connection to and concern for the precious landscapes and our communities under threat from pressures of a changing climate.
What role does location or environment play in your sculptures?
As well as having a creative practice, I was an environmental consultant for 25+, creativity, so caring for nature and creativity are woven like cross threads in my career and interests.
Describe your dream project.
It would definitely be a Mad Scientist Lab / Artist’s Studio in a bush setting with a project to explore sculpture using new biomaterials! I’d love to have a studio with maker’s kitchen and workspace… where I can be inspired by the forms and materials of the environment outside my door and making new biomaterials in the ‘lab’ and form them into artworks.
Come and see for yourself at SWELL Sculpture Festival, Pacific Parade, Currumbin 6th – 15th September.