Ann Harradine

Traces is a series of artworks that looks at identity through the lens of remnant genealogical memorabilia and uses those rescued fragments (objects and family photographs) to assemble a suite of collaged paintings that, together, amount to a personal identikit.

The process of collaging using mixed media allows me to work freely and intuitively construct a new dialogue from my interpretation of photographic remnants of my family’s past.

I have created work in which I have recontextualized the objects and images so that the lack of family information is giving me less of a sense of loss. Through this process, I control what I wish to erase, obscure, or reveal to the viewer. When I married a Latji Latji man and became an accepted member of the local Aboriginal community, I was able to understand my empathy with nature and especially with identity loss.

By layering photocopied B&W images and found artifacts with DIY gesso and coloured paint using bold splashes to erase identity, my process generates a collection of textured and tactile work—embedded and partially obscured family-historical objects and images—all suggestive of life’s traces.

Image gallery