Artist statement

Sense Me, Hummmmmmm stands before the Beechworth Courthouse. I’ve been visiting Beechworth since I was a child, holidaying on a nearby daily farm. I am personally and emotionally connected to this place; the multi-sensory experiences and sensations of this town are embedded in my body. When I think of Beechworth, I can smell the sun setting, feel the grass reverberating with a damp dew in the air, sense the tinkering, stretching sound of metal as it swells with Summer’s heat, and remember bird cries as they fly into the evening sky. My neon works engage with ancient architectural histories and complex contemporary symbols.

In this work, the glowing pink rhombus of Sense Me, Hummmmmmm connects with Ancient Greece’s meaning for rhombus—spinning top—and channels the vibrational hum of this children’s toy. Vibrations are an archetypal method for communicating across vast spaces and they enable reflective healing. As visitors stand in front of this work, I hope they might imagine it’s titular hum within their bodies, tuning into the spaces between the senses: seeing the work, conjuring its sound, feeling its gentle drone within their bodies. In turn, audiences might shift the distance between themselves and the work, outside and inside, reality and imagination.