LOVE LAND is an ongoing community-building tree planting project that invites people to gather and plant native seedlings with a personal handwritten message onto biodegradable paper placed underneath. Over time, the messages will come to nourish the seedling into its growth, so each plant is symbolically infused with human connection and care. LOVE LAND is a simple and…

A conceptually multilayered installation, Ruined Roads explores the ways in which classic books often function as symbols of canonised, even sacred, wisdom within Western culture. Many of us would hesitate to physically desecrate these objects, yet Western culture has a long history of damaging or destroying symbols of sacred knowledge belonging to ‘othered’ cultures. By…

GRAVES is an installation conceived in response to an artist-in-residence program at The CORRIDOR Project in Cowra (in NSW, Australia) in 2020. The residency explored the impact of the Anthropocene on the environment, which has become an increasingly urgent concern. During her time at CORRIDOR, Jess was haunted by the recognition that humans have systematically…

Liminal Leaves was a site-specific work was installed at Retford Park (in Bowral, NSW) in 2021 that explored pollination and the interdependence of living systems by asking: what happens when nature is stripped of its pollinating potential? Jess sourced local eucalyptus branches, sanitised and then spray-painted them white, transforming living plant material into something sterile,…

Scruples is a series of vinyl text installations that offer cryptic messages or questions that contain an inner tension. The Scruples are designed to have the reader feeling challenged or disorientated, then curious to play with the text’s veiled meanings and depths. The Scruples at The CORRIDOR Project were installed on the Shearer’s Quarters windows…

Humanity Always is a simple yet heartfelt work centred on a message that feels both universal and enduring. While the sentiment is perhaps always relevant, its installation in November 2020 (following the devastating 2019–20 Australian bushfire season and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic) gave the work particular resonance. In November 2020, the words HUMANITY…

You cannot be everything (you want to be). The storm before the calm. You are (most likely) missing something. Profundity keeps us afloat. A series of maxims installed at Mental in Bowral, as part of the MicroGalleries Words in Windows micro-disruption in response to Covid-19. These were followed by a new series in August 2020:…

I want to know  if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you… – David Whyte  Here at Arteles in Finland, it is November 2019. The weather oscillates between sunny days, frozen days, snowy days and rainy days. The landscape is wintery and spare, yet ever-changing and revealing.…

Wisdom Weaving is a site-specific installation that asks audiences: What are the wisest words you have ever heard, read or said? The work invites participants to reflect on the words, ideas and insights that have shaped their understanding of life and contributed to their sense of meaning. By asking audiences to identify and share what…

Leaving Love is a site-specific installation originally presented as part of The Art of Giving at Retford Park (2018), with the Artists of the Round Yard. The work comprises excerpts from real love letters, transcribed onto sheets of calico and sewn together with red thread. The thread acts as a visual and symbolic representation of…