Liqui-forms – Sandra Hussey 

My studio is where I invite the chaotic and the unexpected and then try to make sense of it all.

Investigating the material properties of acrylic paint, I exploit the fluidity of the medium to construct paintings. The work is developed from a series of paint pours, both directly on canvas and from various combinations of paint and synthetic resins formed on glass and plastic surfaces. The dried skins are peeled off and I screen print some of these with imagery. The paint skins are then collaged to the canvas.

These paintings reflect my thoughts at the time of making and also events outside of the studio. Although I engage with the process of making, on another level through painting, screen printing and collage, the works are a response to the intersection of human activity and marine ecology.

Instrumental to this project was observing and documenting seaweed and micro-organisms inhabiting the rock pools at Washdyke Lagoon, a wildlife refuge north of Timaru. Human intervention has impacted coastline evolution here. Enclosed by a barrier beach the lagoon has drastically reduced to less than a fifth of its former size due to the construction of the Timaru Port breakwater which prevents coarse sediments from reaching and replenishing the barrier. 

Perhaps the paintings can provide an interface between art and this coastal environment. While there is some irony in using plastic in mimesis of natural processes, conversely it may be a very good medium when considering the present state of our oceans.