Rebecca Armstrong. Lives and works in Melbourne. Currently undertaking BA Fine Art at RMIT.

When you look down and see a rotting leaf on the ground do you think about fragility? Transience? Your own mortality? Well you should, because the same process that is happening to that rotting leaf on the ground is happening inside your own body right now. Everything is transient, nothing is solid, nothing lasts, and everything dies and breaks down. In this collection I attempt to highlight our own mortality and ideas of beauty in death.

Using methodologies similar to a bower bird, I look closely at my environment and collect organic detritus or anything that is breaking down and deteriorating. These objects are normally overlooked and as humans we don’t often relate them. The detritus becomes an archive which I use as the source material for all my work. I look at these collections closely and respond to them by making intimate studies of the detritus that I collect. Through these close studies I hope to change the way that people look at these objects, to make the viewer think about their own ideas of death and mortality.

I use mostly watercolour paints and gouache, to keep the work organic and fluid. The drawings are detailed representations of the end of a lifecycle. I want to encourage people to find beauty in decomposing, breaking down and dying rather than pushing it to the back of the mind. I think that the fragility of life is a beautiful thing that more people should acknowledge and think about.

Opening night drinks Thursday 29 November 6-8pm

http://www.rebeccajanearmstrong.blogspot.com.au/