Target Practice
Artists
This series addresses the constructions and constrictions of definitions of ‘home’ in Australia; it uses imagery of a particular interpretation of what home is ‘supposed’ to look like and what ‘has’ to be kept out in order for this dream to be realised.
The works use the materials of domestic life and recreation – pieces of VJ boards from old Queensland homes; embroidery and stitch-work undertaken in leisure time in a former era; old-fashioned targets from another leisure pursuit – archery; and kitchen plates.
The old cardboard archery targets are riddled with holes – evidence of the various levels of skill and success of those taking aim. Each of them features a crude, immediate image of an introduced species – an animal not native to Australia. Positioned right at the heart of each animal, right in the ringed zone that marks the most fatal spot, delicate hand-made embroideries have been inserted. These pastel perfect images of home seem stand in stark contrast even though both mediums – the archery targets and the embroideries – bear the imprint of a sharp pointed implement – one driving into the image, the other working across the image as it leads the thread through. Beside each of these ‘shadow boxes’ ceramic plates bear reversed. images of the same animals featured in the targets. In these the images of home have been removed
Courtesy the artist 2015
