Emily Ebbs

Emily Ebbs' process-based practice explores stain as both material and metaphor, using organic matter, pigment and raw canvas to evoke the lingering emotional residue of trauma. Through foraging and ritualised preparation, Ebbs considers embodied experience, environment, and memory.

Of this work she says: "This work is a continuation of my residency in Lutruwita/Tasmania. The forms I felt in the landscape were still lingering in my mind when I arrived home and felt I wasn't finished exploring them. Making works back in my studio amongst the industrial buildings, highways, and steel chimneys is of course going to create new ways of making and seeing. Instead of being surrounded by the natural landscape and spoiled when it came to collecting organic materials, I have to search a little bit more.

"The same process is still applied back at my inner city studio. Going out to wander around the studio in search of organic materials, looking at weeds growing out of the concrete walkways, or fallen eucalyptus leaves in the small nature reserves. The process is the same but the natural backdrop is interrupted which manifests in the paintings. The forms have more defined lines with elements of sewing and stitching brought in to create tension with the natural and unnatural world. These works feel like closing a chapter of forms that have lingered within me, but I have no doubt they will resurface again down the line."