Mariana del Castillo, Remains, 2022. Recycled galvanised bread tray, burnt driftwood (Lake Conjola), industrial felt and cotton thread, 45 x 36 x 20cm. Courtesy: the artist and Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra, NSW.

Mariana del Castillo’s new works move away from the internal landscape of her personal history out into the external landscape of country. Over this period of exploring the landscape del Castillo felt compelled to bring the effects of climate change more directly into her art practice.

This exhibition explores regeneration and the collaborative response to complex traumas experienced by Australia’s rural communities after drought, floods, bushfires, and COVID-19. In 2022 del Castillo undertook a Bundanon residency. This solitary time brought clarity to her relationship to nature and its importance to her art practice.

Although the landscape of the South coast had undergone devastating fires, the bushland had begun the process of regeneration. Stitching out in the landscape away from her studio allowed the artist to translate moments on country. This rhythmic process of stitching, collaging and mark making has been the seed for these new constructions.

Del Castillo’s despair about waste and excess informs her art practice and is visible in her deconstruction of recycled textiles and objects. Their embedded histories and patinas continue to inform her palette and compositions.

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