A Cloud Never Dies
Video projection, charcoal and pastel on paper, 2024
Storm + Night & Bend in the Horizon
A Cloud Never Dies,
Painting, collage, projection
Jan Manton Gallery, Brisbane
21 January - 6 February, 2025
A Cloud Never Dies draws upon the teachings of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who proposes that a cloud does not disappear but transforms into rain, mist, or snow—an allegory for perpetual change. This notion of transformation resonates deeply within the work, which seeks to capture the transient and tempestuous beauty of the coastal sky while navigating personal grief and loss.
Rooted in the experiential and gestural, the series incorporates Plein-air painting, lusciously pigmented watercolours on paper, punctuated with collage, and video projection. Created during a period of profound personal transition, the work attempts to translate the fleeting life of clouds, sky, and the horizon in pigmented hues. The act of painting at dusk—when the light shifts rapidly—became a ritual, echoing the instability of memory and experience. The horizon line recurs throughout as both a stabilising and disrupting force and a point of transition between presence, absence, colour and plane.
Revisiting the atmospheric studies of J.M.W. Turner and the immersive colour fields of Mark Rothko during the creation of this work, the watercolours range from naturalistic depictions to abstract fields, to distortion, where pigment and water blur unpredictably. These evolving forms reflect both environmental flux and internal states of transformation.
Through the integration of video projection and collage, the work moves beyond the frame, creating immersive spaces that blur reality and illusion. A Cloud Never Dies meditates on impermanence, resilience, and environmental care, inviting consideration on cycles of change, loss, and renewal.
She Does (Working Title) on Paper
Video projection, charcoal and pastel on paper, 2024
She Does (Working Title) on Paper
Video projection, charcoal and pastel on paper, 2024
She Does (Working Title) on Paper gives visual form to the memory and experience of the liminal space between dying and death. In caring for someone exiting this life, I felt like a caretaker of memories and the objects—boxes, antiquities, and personal effects—wherein these memories are infused.
The light of video projection, the friable and condensed application of charcoal and pastel, and torn paper evidence the complex fragility, intimacy, and exhaustion of this temporal space when one is confronted with their own mortality via the death of a parent.
Driven by a hypnotic dirge the projection of performing in my father’s suit is layered and animated into ghostly actions onto sweeping gestural lines and soft monochromic tones. This drawing ritualises care and nurtures relationality to quietly honour women’s unseen labour and question the value of care in a society that values capital.
Fisher’s Ghost Art Award
Bathroom Scene
Video Installation (2x screen and wallpaper) , w 200 x h 160, 2024.
Video Duration: 09:00
Campbelltown Arts Centre NSW
Fisher’s Ghost Art Award
Bathroom Scene
Video Installation ( 2 x screen and wallpaper) , w 200 x h 160, 2024.
Video Duration: 09:00
Campbelltown Arts Centre NSW
Bathroom Scene is a two-channel video installation that captures the liminal space between dying and death. Against faux woodgrain wallpaper, Kellie O'Dempsey ritualises care into surreal scenes and hypnotic loops, honouring women's unseen labour while questioning the value of care in a capital-driven world.
Redland Art Awards
A Cloud Never Dies
Watercolour on paper, w 1260 x h 640, 2024
Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland
8 December 2024 – 28 January 2025
Redland Art Awards
A Cloud Never Dies
Watercolour on paper, w 1260 x h 640, 2024
Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland
8 December 2024 – 28 January 2025
Created from my father’s A cloud never dies is a plein-air painting made after his passing. This work captures the ephemeral nature of cloudscapes using a calligraphic gestures, delicate interplay of pigment with water and drawing stimulus from Thich Nhat Hanh's teaching, of the same name which contemplates continuity and rebirth as solace in grief.
In this seascape, the horizon is a stabilising element, contrasting with the destabilisation that accompanies profound loss. A small, minimalist pigmented paintings within the composition acknowledges the weighty concerns of landscape painting traditions and disrupts the form. Illuminating the interplay of presence and absence this work explores the horizon's essential role as a stabilising force.
Wish You Were Here in Pink with Eye Ball Fish
Video and mixed media, w 150 x h 150, 2023
Wish You Were Here in Pink with Eye Ball Fish
Video and mixed media, w 150 x h 150, 2023
This work began during the stop-start-stasis of COVID-19, transforming the isolation and gruelling continuation of the pandemic into a mesmerising carnival of ghostly silhouettes. Within colliding and overlapping media—video, collage and hand drawing - multiple figures attempt to travel yet go nowhere. The work visualises the often unseen, monotonous, and highly gendered care work. The repetitive rhythms and endless loops evoke the milieu of domestic labour and the intertwined states of endurance and exhaustion. Through the work’s non-specific locations, elusive temporal registers, the piece visualizes the often unseen and gruelling aspects of care work in a hypnotic and lurid cycle highlighting the multidimensional nature of experience creating an absurd yet uplifting work