Josie Cavallaro

I oscillate between making objects and facilitating projects that enable art to be made and experienced through diverse perspectives. As a facilitator, I’m motivated by the artistic possibilities of unlikely forces coming together to create. I aim to generate projects that question and extend frameworks of engagement in contemporary art practice. I believe that diversity and universal access to the arts underpins innovation and broadens perceptions and possibilities for artistic forms. My sculptural practice is largely informed by the built environment as shared multispecies sites. My work observes mediated relationships between humans and other species and how conditioned environments and behaviour influence narratives of pest or partner.

Playback Kandos Museum is framed by the artist’s audio narration of an object selected from the Kandos Museum collection. Over the course of a year, an invitation was extended for people to listen to the description and then recreate the object into physical form. Playback creates a space for attention and intention. Through the actions of listening, interpreting and re-making, each rendition will contribute a unique reading of that object, re-told through the kinks of perception and lived experience. Each edition is made signature by the maker’s hand, expressing their relationship to material and social expression. On the surface this display will create a curious snapshot of levels of accuracy, similarities and differences. On reflection, the work invites audiences to consider notions of listening and perceptions on artefacts that are collected and preserved to inform our social values and re-count our shared histories.

This project was created in partnership with Kandos Museum. This project is supported by Create NSW’s Country Arts Support Program, a devolved funding program administered by Arts OutWest