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| Kath Fries, Arboreal concept, digital sketch, 2012 |
Arboreal is an intervention installation wrapping the rose
garden’s central pear trees in strips of fabric, like injured human limbs. Earlier this year, one of these trees was naturally
splitting in half, but now the tree has been bolted together - a process similar to inserting surgical pins in a human broken bone.
Arboreal extends this anthropomorphic narrative to playfully suggest alchemic healing with glimpses of gold leaf and
charcoal residue in the bandages, and an oversized bamboo crutch supporting a lower bound branch. This work has been
inspired by the traditional horticultural practices that Kath observed in Japan on a research trip in 2011, thanks to The Japan Foundation’s New Artist Award.
(*Anthropomorphic means the attribution of human characteristics to nonhumans.)
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| Kath Fries, Bandaged tree in Kyoto, Japan 2011, image link |
Kath Fries has been based at Parramatta Artists Studios over the past two years. Her work explores materiality, spatiality and archetypical narratives relating to transience of existence and fragility of life. Her site-sensitive process and use of found materials infers a poetic commentary about human struggles with nature and that which is naturally uncontrollable in our lives. Fries has been awarded a Masters of Visual Art from the University of Sydney, the 2010 Japan Foundation New Artist Award and a 2011 ArtStart Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. www.kathfries.com
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| Kath Fries, Kyoto tree crutch, Japan 2011, image link |
