Archival - Self-published ART BOOK

40 page Art book by Alison Shirley

Photography is always a tool for me in any creative project, whether it be at the centre of the work, or more of a companion. In this year’s Major Project for Honours, it took more of a front seat than I had anticipated, driven forward as human contact and close physical participation disappeared in the rear view. The image-collecting began as a way to notice and observe ancestry - the way trees show their family heritage with particular traits. It grew to encompass other elements, such as water and its ever changing form. Here there were other kinds of patterns, ones that appeared and disappeared and reshaped constantly with the movement of water. The landscape was showing me another way to see embodiment, with patterns repeating but also shifting a little every time, just as memory itself behaves. I found the same dance of life and embodiment could be told through the elements, patterns and perspectives I found in the natural world around me - and the closer I looked, the more I could find new ways of seeing.