Sara Maher: Chrysalid

Many of the small works were made sitting at a writing desk in my mum’s home, nestled amid trees and vast summer skies of Peramangk Country in the Adelaide Hills. My sister and her girls, who live just nearby, visited daily. As we chattered around mum’s kitchen table, friendly magpies warbled on the verandah. Ornamental Christmas decorations, collected by mum over her lifetime, glimmered all about the house. The sky outside was vibrantly blue and as day ended it became vibrantly pink. The magpies continued to warble on and off through the dark of night. This Christmas, as mum is unwell and we are so aware of life’s preciousness, there was more than ever a feeling of enchantment in the air…as if the veil between this world and the imaginal world was ultra-thin.

The large works were made through the solace of night, here on Muwinina Country. In my studio, I reflect on the vibrancy of matter -- the way water, earth, ink and fluid medium coalesce on and through large sheets of paper to suggest a presence more ancient than my life -- a nuanced materiality that is infused with memory. Sometimes, raw pastel-drawn markings and symbolic expressions come to hover through these spaces.

Sara Maher, 2023