Artist's Statement
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As a multidisciplinary artist my work explores links between performative movement and visual art through kinaesthetic empathy and focusses on connections between bodies in motion.
My drawing, painting and dance experience informs how I manipulate ink on printmaking plates and make gestural marks that translate my professional dance career into works that have visual energy. Links between dance and printmaking practices are many, as pressure is used in both fields to create imagery for an audience. Dancers use floor pressure and gravity to imprint illusions of lightness and speed on viewers' minds and printmakers rely on the weight of the press and other tools to impart visual messages. Physical labour, studio sharing, registration techniques and repetition are other interesting parallels. My recent paintings, prints and monotypes employ the use of my own body weight in tandem with paint or ink and the etching press, to embed imagery into a range of surfaces. My subject matter is mined from personal and institutional archives with the intention of visualising women's emotional labour through empathic movement and viscous media. Specifically, my research investigates women's resistance to sociopolitical structures that encourage docility which I synthesise with my own lived experiences. |
My performing life with The Australian Ballet and smaller contemporary dance organisations in Australia and the UK trained me to notice everyday human gestures that indicate deeper psychosomatic dimensions of the body. I empathise with my subject matter through ink and movement which feeds into my choreographed and filmed source material. This process is further refined through my sketchbook practice and my resolved drawings, paintings and prints.
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About
Elizabeth completed her MA in Print at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London in 2025, where she was awarded the Deputy Vice Chancellor's International Scholarship. Her BFA studies from 2022 to 2024 at National Art School (NAS), Sydney Australia included printmaking, drawing and painting. From 2017 to 2020 Elizabeth attended the Art Students League of New York and studied botanical illustration at the New York Botanical Gardens. The keen observation skills gained through her training as a botanical artist continue to sustain her life drawing practice.
Born on the land of the Wurundjeri people (Melbourne, Australia) Elizabeth's early art practice was as a professional dancer with The Australian Ballet where she performed in classical and contemporary ballets as a soloist and as a member of the corps de ballet. Her recent work explores grace, fluidity, identity and authenticity through the positioning of the head, torso and physical extremities which is depicted in her portraits, figure drawings and plant studies. Frequently she uses video footage of herself in performance to generate imagery grounded in kinaesthetic empathy for her own and a broad range of bodies. Her subject matter considers the impact that human beings have on each other and the planet.
Elizabeth's social sciences degree, from the University of Sydney (BSW Hons First Class), provides an ethical basis from which she interacts with the people she encounters as an artist. Her trauma informed practice carefully explores how pain can be mitigated by dance and movement. Elizabeth is an experienced group facilitator and has worked extensively with both children and adults in fields related to dance and well-being.
Born on the land of the Wurundjeri people (Melbourne, Australia) Elizabeth's early art practice was as a professional dancer with The Australian Ballet where she performed in classical and contemporary ballets as a soloist and as a member of the corps de ballet. Her recent work explores grace, fluidity, identity and authenticity through the positioning of the head, torso and physical extremities which is depicted in her portraits, figure drawings and plant studies. Frequently she uses video footage of herself in performance to generate imagery grounded in kinaesthetic empathy for her own and a broad range of bodies. Her subject matter considers the impact that human beings have on each other and the planet.
Elizabeth's social sciences degree, from the University of Sydney (BSW Hons First Class), provides an ethical basis from which she interacts with the people she encounters as an artist. Her trauma informed practice carefully explores how pain can be mitigated by dance and movement. Elizabeth is an experienced group facilitator and has worked extensively with both children and adults in fields related to dance and well-being.