High and Dry
Olivia Reedman
Master of Architecture | University of Newcastle
“If it’s human to put something useful, edible, or beautiful into a bag, basket, or woven net and take it home—home being another larger kind of pouch or container—then I am a human being after all.” - Ursula Le Guin
MATERIALS: plaster + cotton + iron oxide + wool yarn
Artist Statement
Home is nestled between two large water bodies on beautiful Awabakal Country: Lake Macquarie and our own beautiful little fragment of the East Coast. My earliest childhood memories consist of warm summer days exploring the coastlines and collecting shells with my family, sundrenched laying upon the sandy shores, lapping up the salt air and warm breeze, feelings of comfort and warmth soaking into my skin.
After my mum’s sudden passing in our family home I sought spaces that were distant from family and the immense trauma that comes from a life altering event; disassociating from home, viewing it as simply a necessary container for survival. My living belonging encapsulates this experience, reflecting on the precious memories that pertain through making techniques that connect me to the matriarchy that is no longer physically present. Through experiences on Country and a deep appreciation of the Saltwater Country that surrounds home, my living belonging seeks to represent an ode to home and Country.
Synopsis
This work explores the concept of home as a container of memories, drawing on the Carrier Bag Theory, where a home is seen as a vessel that holds the experiences, emotions, and objects that define our lives. Just as plaster has the porosity to absorb and hold memories, so does the home—each wall, each object, becoming a silent witness to the lives lived within it. The act of freeform crochet, a fluid and meditative process, becomes a means of engaging with this idea of home as both a container and a creator of memory. The fibres of the crochet stitches, like the walls of a home, are porous and absorb the emotions and histories passed down through generations.
The biomorphic forms created in the crochet process reflect organic growth and transformation, mirroring how memory and trauma can shape a space. Through this juxtaposition of the precise measurement inherent in crochet and the fluidity of its form, the work highlights the tension between home as a place of safety and a place of trauma. Home becomes a place that can contain and protect, but also one that holds the weight of past experiences.
In the context of Saltwater Country, the work connects with the deep, ancestral ties to land and heritage, exploring how home is not only shaped by personal history but also by the broader cultural and spiritual connection to Country. Crocheting becomes a way of reaching across time and space to connect with the matriarchs who are no longer physically present, weaving their memory into the fabric of the present. This process is both an act of remembrance and a reclaiming of lineage, connecting the past to the present through the intimate, tactile act of creation.
