My practice often begins with the photograph, which I view as an imprint or trace of daily energy and information flows, but in presentation spans video and various installation elements.

Most of my projects begin with a diaristic structure, which then develops into more fictional or speculative forms that consider different modes of interpreting or subverting daily data and personal histories. This is informed by an ongoing interest in the mechanisms of cognition and the role of sensorial and embodied knowledges in opening up or transfiguring closed patterns, such as habituated ways of making sense of our environment.

I work between the studio and home. Especially when I’m editing video, I like working late at night when everything around me is quiet. Otherwise I do listen to podcasts or music and also like taking breaks from the screen to work with my hands, usually printmaking or ceramics.

Intuition and planning go hand in hand. When I start on a new project, it’s really important not to succumb to the pressure of attaching language to everything. Once I’m further in, it inevitably becomes more planned and conceptual, but it’s vital to keep moving between the two, knowing and not-knowing, different ways of paying attention and being informed.

It is always difficult to answer how you hope visitors encounter your work.
Obviously it’s not something you can ever fully control, but equally it’s important to know your intention. I tend to not overly focus too much on what something means. Instead, I work with reimagining processes and trying to speak to a collective imaginary.

I’m excited to be showing my most recent film at Rotterdam International Film Festival this year. It’s the first time I’m exhibiting in a cinema context and I look forward to how the experience will inform other moving image works, in particular thinking of new ways to work with sound, voice or acting.

Currently, I am in the process of developing a new installation, which has grown out of a fellowship with The State Library of Victoria I was awarded last year.

I am also working on a podcast as well as couple of artists’ book projects, one coming out of a workshop I led last year with Bus Projects, which includes an exciting group of other artists and writers, and then a new book of photographs. 

Photographs: Theresa Harrison Photography
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