Susan Hawkins

Appropriating familial ephemera to create abstract experiences, Brisbane artist Susan Hawkins physically ‘regrams’ the past into something vaguely familiar and yet singular.

The Internet has afforded us unprecedented global connectivity and information sharing. Almost unconsciously we ‘repost’, ‘regram’ and ‘retweet’ to
a global audience with little consideration to the information’s origin, destination and permanence.

A playful and unnerving composition, Make of Me highlights our changing relationship and responsibility towards the documenting and referencing of our own
and others’ lives.

IMAGES | Susan Hawkins, I Want You, 2016, Woven mesh, gold powder coated parabolic antennas, speakers. The Beatles’ song remixed by Murray Johnstone. Photograph by Christopher Saunders | Images courtesy of the artist.

MAKE OF ME

BLINDSIDE artist-run space begins the second half of 2016 with Make of Me, a solo exhibition of works by emerging artist Susan Hawkins. Hawkins uses her skills in metal-smithing, woodworking and casting to repurpose a range of found objects. Familiar items, such as tabletops, ceramics, metal frames and copper wire, are deconstructed and reassembled by Hawkins to create familiar yet surreal forms. Through this process, the artist revalues the significance of everyday objects and examines themes of memory and materiality. Her objects undergo a type of metamorphism whereby their original function is never completely lost yet they become new objects in their own right. Hawkins's sculptures embody the past through their material makeup while simultaneously encouraging new interpretations from their indiscernible function and purpose. A graduate of the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Hawkins currently works between Brisbane and Melbourne and has previously exhibited at The GAS (Griffith University Art Gallery), Brisbane, and Gaffa Creative Precinct and Studio Spaces, Sydney

— JULIA RODWELL