An exhibition of new work in domestic space by Anna Dunnill & Rebecca Orchard, at Rebecca's house in Maylands, 2013
'The rituals of the home vary from place to place, culture to culture. The home does not always mean a house. A home can be two sticks and a piece of cloth, a cardboard box, another person. Being ‘at home’ means feeling comfortable; a sense of belonging. Being wholly yourself.
Equally, a house does not always mean a home. Houses are expensive. To combat this we live in rentals, sometimes with other people whose lives diverge from ours. This requires adaptation. We change ourselves, a little, or a lot, to fit the situations in which we live.
In Perth, houses tend to be sprawling, one-storey, with big gardens. In the course of developing the exhibition, Rebecca’s house – or rather garden – went up for sale. The earth, here, is rare and valuable.
Rebecca Orchard’s work explores the ways that nature is represented in the domestic environment, unpicking the binary of indoors/outdoors. Using rocks, leaves, sticks and other objects from nature, she investigates the depiction of idealised flora and romanticised landscapes that are used to decorate our homes.
Anna Dunnill's practice is concerned with language, communication and tactility. Her work uses text and expanded notions of drawing to investigate human connection and disconnection. She is currently interested in embroidery and stick-and-poke (or ‘home’) tattoo and their relationship to the body and to each other. Both processes involve the repetitive piercing of a surface with a needle.
Over the course of the year the two met regularly at Rebecca’s house to draw and make art.'
Catalogue text by Anna Dunnill
All images courtesy of artists