In Coversation — Vicki Mason
Banksia — A Series by Vicki Mason
The New Zealand-born artist has created a series of large-scale sculptures as a tribute to the striking, iconically Australian flora.
Drawing from a vast personal library of photos, Vicki has materialised these unique plants using a variety of found and recycled materials, with each piece boasting its own distinct character, tactility and story to tell.
In this conversation, Vicki reflects on the making of this series, the illuminating shift to working on a larger scale, and the grounded nature of sculpture.
Much of your work is rooted in research and conceptual investigation. Can you share the catalyst behind this collection of Banksia sculptures?
Banksias are among the most distinctive plants of Australia, celebrated not only for their striking forms but also for their remarkable ecological adaptations. With over 170 species, they range from towering trees to low shrubs, each producing dramatic flower spikes composed of hundreds of tiny individual flowers. These inflorescences are rich in nectar and play a vital role in supporting birds, mammals, and insects. Their flower spikes, structural in form, are distinctive and often sentinel-like. These flowers have always fascinated me. I moved to Australia in 1999 from New Zealand and have always wanted to create my own versions of these flower ‘candles’. Being asked to create new work on a larger scale for e.g.etal’s window seemed like the perfect opportunity to work with this iconic flower form.
I walk on a daily basis and I’m aware of the banksias in my neighbourhood’s gardens, parks and local golf course, and I always hunt them out when visiting botanic gardens. I’ve observed the flowers’ seasonal cycles over time. I’ve taken copious photos and read widely about the species. I drew on this research material when thinking about developing and making the works as well as drawing on the fact that banksias hold a singular place in Australia’s cultural imagination and history.
You’ve used a broad range of materials in this body of work, from textiles to refuse plastics. What was your intention in choosing these materials?
Using a melange of salvaged and new virgin materials reflects my material collecting tendencies and an ongoing curiosity to learn about the haptic qualities of all materials. Being able to characterise a material’s range of qualities through experimenting with it gives me the ability to use it to create and express meaning. For example, the gentle curve created when a polished hemp cord of 1 mm is folded in half to create a loop creates for me a feeling of calm. When these hemp loops are then combined with fluffy yarns, the combination expresses a soft tone. Being articulate with a disparate range of materials was intended to not only give me the opportunity to learn about them but to capture something of the subject under investigation in order to tell an aspect of its story.
This will be the first time your larger works have been represented within the gallery. How does the experience of creating work on a larger scale differ from your jewellery collection?
As an engineering enthusiast – and this is something I love about making jewellery – I’ve found it illuminating creating on a larger scale and being able to develop work with construction methodologies that wouldn’t translate to making jewellery. Working outside the constraints of the body has enabled me to work with interior spaces that are bigger in scale. Most of the works can hang, so the space that mobiles move and exist in is another space that became available to work within. The surfaces that sculptures like these engage with are harder; walls and tables are not skin or clothing. This widening of scope presents challenges and problems to be solved. Building a skill set to solve new design problems, to think more three-dimensionally alongside considering how viewers might interact with larger works keeps things fresh for me and reveals new ways to potentially approach my jewellery.
You’ve stated that jewellery has the capacity to create space for dialogue between the wearer and the observer. The Banksia offer a new way to interact with your work. How do you envisage they will create similar opportunities for communicating ideas?
I’m not sure how to answer this question as I’m not sure that objects of this scale that exist outside being wearable and portable will generate spaces for conversations that echo those I’ve personally found jewellery can. If I speculate and imagine, then perhaps the more permanent long-term presence sculptures of this kind have (if they are on continual display in a home, office space, or wherever they are located) can tell their stories and communicate in more communal ways. If they can draw people to them without the body as the conduit to connecting with another person, then perhaps they can also act as ‘conversation pieces’. Jewellery moves and the dialogue between wearer and viewer can be fleeting, whereas works of this kind are more grounded, anchored and relational.
Your work uses botanical motifs to explore notions of place, belonging and the life cycle. What do you hope people will feel when they see these works?
I hope people feel the sheer aliveness, variety, generosity and beauty evident in this series. And as a flow-on, the Banksia plant species and its flowers that are so iconically Australian.
I trust those who engage will see that banksia flowers are symbols of belonging and remember they appear across literature, art and environmental philosophy as emblems of resilience and our national identity. They are reminders that Australia’s identity is inseparable from its environment, that resilience is born of ecological belonging and that cultural life finds meaning in the cycles of adaptation, loss and renewal embodied by the banksia and its archetypal flower.
I hope viewers see each one as unique with its own distinct character, tactility and story to tell. Hanging or resting on a table, I hope they evoke something of the way plants inhabit space: grounded yet reaching outward, and that each one asks for care.
Visit the gallery to experience Vicki’s Banksia Sculptures in person, or view them online here.
