Embers Exhibition August 5- September 6
Embers is about what remains alive after everything that is not us, everything performative, protective, or imposed, has burned away. It’s about what flickers beneath the ash and what still glows, quiet but resolute, even after decades of darkness.
For me, those embers are the reawakening of a self I thought had died at eight. A child self; sensitive, playful, fierce, who never truly left, but went underground after trauma. Since then, I’ve lived with the relentlessness of PTSD. I’m still challenged. I still burn. Only now it’s constructively.
At 42, I’ve come into contact with something essential to who I am regardless of what complex childhood trauma had disconnected me for decades. A synthesised sense of self, openess to life and able to transcend states of paralysis and dissociation to genuinely feel alive. I’ve integrated that child before the wound with the woman into something alchemical as an artist, a survivor, and now, increasingly meaningfully part and contributing member of society. I’m embracing the opportunity to share the power of art to transform how we experience daily life. I’m no longer only on the edges, observing; I’m living, contributing and sharing it.
The colours of that re-emergence, my child self’s yellow and pink, have come through in rose gold, gold, and iridescent pearl. These works are activated by light; when white light shines on them, they reveal their full radiance. There’s something quietly powerful about that, about needing light to see what has always been there.
Scott Ross features a video art piece. A meditative unfolding of memory and landscape, where light flickers like through returning to the body.
It means so much to share Embers not only through my own work, but in dialogue with the artworks created by our workshop participants. I thank each of them for their openness and bravery, for entering a creative process I once found too overwhelming to face myself. It takes courage to make art that isn’t paint-by-numbers, to bring something raw and real into the world, and then dare to be seen.
These works are not secondary, they are vital. They embody a different kind of ember: the quiet glow of community, of shared risk, of each person stepping into the unknown with trust. Together, these contributions form a chorus of small resurgences, of people allowing themselves to be changed by art, and in doing so, becoming part of a larger creative pulse.
To include their work in Embers is not just a gesture, it’s a statement. That healing doesn’t only happen in solitude or in the artist’s studio. It happens in community, in process, in the moment someone makes a mark on the page and lets it stand. It happens when we witness each other with respect and care.
To be seen, and to see ourselves, that is the ember. The quiet fire. The return to life. The discovery that the flame in us was never extinguished but waiting patiently to be reconnected with and rekindled.
Romulus Folio Gallery
15–85 Gladstone Street, South Melbourne
Wed–Fri 12–7pm | Sat–Sun 2–5pm | or by appointment
Free Entry
Opening Night: Friday, August 15, 5–7pm
Held in conjunction with The Gladstone residents’ monthly social night. Light refreshments provided. All welcome.