Making-do
Over the years my parents furnished their home with the occasional home-made cupboard, small table, tray or box. Tins of semi-used enamel paint stored in the garage were repurposed for a range of these jobs, as well as the gutters and downpipes. Here I’ve used my memory of some of the limited colours that were available at the time in the hardware store, the brushstrokes and paint drips, to evoke the make-do aesthetic using paint swatches I picked up at our local Bunnings.
From my photowork series Legacy, exhibited @ 44 in Rozelle, NSW, July 2025
The works in this exhibition became a means for me to navigate the emotional complexities of being far away from my ageing parents in Albany (Kinjarling), WA (the town where I grew up) as my father’s health declined. Over the past two years, I’ve been a frequent visitor to my parents’ home. Just before Dad died in March, I found myself lapping the garden and the orchard, and reflecting on the legacies we inherit, the ones we shape, and what we leave behind for each other.