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Ellen Ferrier
Field Work | 2024
Field Work. @ Pine Forest
Field Work is an ode to the wild and wayward ones, the verdant vagabonds, the edge-dwellers. It is an exploration of materials both regenerative and reparative. It is a hopeful vision for the future. Nestled within a field of nomadic plants, budding building blocks of our future present themselves. Made from the very same undervalued and overlooked species that surround them, these materials inspire imaginings of a thriving future - one that is rooted in an ethics of care, connection and reciprocity with the natural world.
bio:
Ellen Ferrier is an installation artist based in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Exploring the possibilities of traditional and emergent sustainable materials and technologies, she creates speculative material playscapes - curiosities and propositions for a thriving future, built on an ethics of care and reciprocity. Preliminary studies in Interior Architecture, wood-fired ceramics and bodywork modalities, cultivated a sensitivity and appreciation of materiality, spatial relations and the potency of embodied perception. In 2021 Ellen obtained her Master of Fine Arts from the Burren College of Art, Ireland - a college that nurtures the convergence of ecology and the arts. In 2023, Ellen was the sole recipient of the Windmill Trust Scholarship to assist in the research and production of her current inquiry into bio-crete, the result of which is to be exhibited in Cementa24.
statement:
Passionate about the earthly materiality of this world, I employ local, natural and sustainable materials to create works that enkindle renewed wonderment of, and correlation with the elemental world. Built at a scale akin to the human body, my installations invite physical participation and traversal. I think of them as material playscapes - abstract objects and architectures that invite embodied exploration through haptic, playful encounter. Site-specificity is foundational to my ethos and methodology as an artist - collaborating with materials of the land engenders a connection to place that goes beyond intellect, penetrating deeper into elemental wisdom. These materials remind us of our immanence and reciprocity with the more-than-human world, urging us to listen, to soften, to slow down.
Pine Forest
This project was assisted by the Windmill Trust Scholarship, established in memory of artist Penny Meagher, and administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA).
