Essential Making

Grounded in the belief that creativity is essential to living, artmaking becomes a practical way to navigate pain, assert agency, and reclaim control.

For the artists of the SICK AF Collective, healing is not a separate outcome; it is embodied within the act of creation. Spanning textiles, photography, writing, jewellery, and installation, the exhibition gathers works born of necessity.

Notes, repetitions, and fragments sit alongside finished pieces, extending each work beyond its final form and into the conditions that produced it. Here, constraints are negotiated and adaptations are embraced as vital components of the creative language. Across these works, individual voices emerge through personal systems of meaning and repair.

Creating Space invites viewers to reflect, respond, and expand upon their own creative practices – in studios, at home, in the gallery, or in the quiet moments between.

Lucinda Crimson

Lucinda Crimson’s vibrant work sits in juxtaposition to the limits of her energy, with that negotiation shaping both her process and the work itself.
(WA, Australia)
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Catherine Higham

Catherine Higham, primary carer for her husband Geoff, explores what it is to be human, within living systems that converge.
(regional WA, Australia)
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Shayne O’Donnell

With minimised use of her dominant hand, Shayne O’Donnell turned to her left, embracing variation, where uncertainty becomes part of the process.
(VIC/WA, Australia)
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Annamaria Weldon

Learning to adapt after chronic illness reshaped her body, Annamaria Weldon keeps her sanctuary alive with words and beauty.
(WA, Australia)
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