Once, while scuba diving for the first time, I experienced something that deeply affected me. Still being on Earth, I found myself in a completely different world — one with its own physical laws and rhythm of life. I realized in a very real, tangible way that our planet is an entirely different place for sea creatures than it is for those who live on land.
I felt a similar kind of wonder when I discovered the artworks co-created by Australian nature and the artist Chelsea. Though we share the same planet, we form completely different ideas of what feels ordinary or extraordinary — simply because we live on different continents, shaped by different natural worlds.
Australian nature gives birth to flowers of extraordinary beauty, leaving behind seedpods of astonishing, almost otherworldly shapes. Chelsea transforms them into alien-like objects through her use of color. In my turn, I translated this dialogue between the terrestrial and the alien — between nature and the human — into an artificial plane, creating four art objects using stained glass, solder, ceramics, brass, and plexiglass. Now these pieces live comfortably in the northern cold, reflecting for me the distant, alien warmth of Australia.
