Threshold, in Twenty -Five Moments

An Artist Statement

Threshold, as suggested by the title is a metaphorical doorway, to be crossed on entering a new space, a place at which something ceases and something new happens or comes into effect.  The word threshold is also used to describe an amount, level, or limit on a scale, when the limit or threshold is reached, something else happens or changes. This is the point where one may become vulnerable in response to some new experience, such as entering an art gallery, a museum, a church or even a Japanese garden!

There is a certain ceremony in the use of antique carved sandstone balustrades to support the delicate felted rock above, Balustrades first appeared in Ancient Greece and have since then often been used as a decorative safety mechanism to prevent people from falling from a staircase, a bridge or other architectural feature. They also have played a role in many works of fiction, maybe most famously in the Balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet.

My balustrades came from Central Station in Sydney, a place of arrivals and departures so appropriate to my use as an exit or entry way, the beginning or ending of an adventure! The carved sandstone rocks supported by the balustrades are also resourced from historic Sydney buildings when the buildings were being renovated or repaired (the AGNSW, St. Mary’s Cathedral). The soft felted landscape entwined around the rock suggests a return to the earth, history being subsumed into the earth, time passing, the balustrades and sculptural stones have passed their use by date, the felted wool is also from discarded blankets. Everything is recycled, reborn to another use, another life.

Threshold, Gosford. Regional Gallery 2025