OPENING NIGHT 5.30 – 7.30PM FRIDAY 6 OCTOBER 2023
Sparks Might Fly challenges us to confront our patterns of consumption and waste.
Artist Justin Telfer weaves together natural and manufactured materials using disused electrical wiring, plastic bags and other salvaged materials together with natural materials such as Bangalow Palm inflorescence and banana fibre. Telfer creates in abundance, using whatever is at hand, or items that would otherwise go to landfill to create his forms. The work invites us to contemplate the lifespan of materials, biodegradability, and the traces we leave behind.
By weaving these materials together he creates a powerful visual dialogue that resonates with both the aesthetic and the ethical. The medium is the message – Telfer reminds us the waste we create will remain inextricable from our natural world.
Telfer employs the technical skills and elements of weaving in both random and more traditional styles with knotting, stitching and string making. His interest in the tactile through the application of traditional techniques using non-traditional materials, allows the materials to guide his creations testing the limits of his chosen materials and allowing one action to lead to another, letting the work evolve.
The works prompts the viewer to reflect the on the cost of progress and the importance of conscious consumption and embedding sustainability in our daily lives.
Justin Telfer graduated from the Byron School of Art in 2020. He has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, been selected as a finalist in art prizes, and was awarded first prize in the Whitsundays Art Prize in 2022.