Will my salty tears preserve or erode me?
Artist Statement
The left hand is the right hand.
After temporarily losing the use of my right hand, I was forced to create with my non-dominant left hand. This shift in approach meant I had fewer expectations of the outcome, which was liberating and allowed me to restart a creative process that had been halted by being so SICK AF.
Salt is part of an ongoing exploration of illness, loss, and grief. In this work, I use mulberries to stain the paper, which inevitably fades—a fragile deterioration over time. The colors, vivid and life-affirming, fade just as our bodies do under the weight of chronic illness or injury. By introducing salt, I aimed to preserve some of the color—just enough to hint at what once was, and just enough to evoke a quiet grief.
Biography
Shayne O’Donnell is a practising artist currently living and working in Perth, on Whadjuk Boodjar. O’Donnell graduated from Curtin University with a Masters in 2011, and has shown at institutions such as PICA and John Curtin Gallery. O’Donnell has work held in multiple private collections as well as Artbank Sydney.
Connect
Instagram: @shayne_odonnell
list of works
Shayne O’Donnell
Salt
2023
Mulberry stain and salt on paper
102 X 66cm
POA ($300)
Artwork