Pickled

My Artist Statement:
New work titled “Pickled”
66x72cm
$2500
It’s been in my head since I started working as a medical photographer at the hospital.
In pathology, each day, I document preserved specimens; suspended in formalin, both fascinating and unsettling in their stillness. That experience deeply influenced the way I think about preservation, memory, and transformation.

In this piece, the photograph of a pickle jar, itself becomes a specimen; encased and “preserved” within layers of encaustic wax. This art process is highly technical and labor-intensive, involving multiple methods of fusing, carving, insizing and layering to achieve both depth, color and permanence. Just as pathology specimens are fixed to halt decay, the image here is trapped in time, protected, yet altered by the medium that holds it.

The work is painted onto an upcycled retro fire screen, chosen deliberately for its nostalgic domesticity. It contrasts the clinical precision of my photographic practice with the warmth and imperfection of something once used and discarded. Through this transformation, Pickled explores the tension between the organic and the artificial, the scientific and the sentimental.

🐝Studio Reset
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