Sarah Rhodes: Ingesting the island

Image: Ingesting the Island (2022). © Sarah Rhodes. Courtesy of the artist. 

Living and working on Lutruwita/Tasmania, Sarah Rhodes explores ways in which the natural environment can guide an understanding of one’s inner world.

Isolation and connection, self-containment and belonging are key themes of her work and intrinsic to living on an island.

Ingesting the island (2022) uses the road through the interior of Tasmania as a way of journeying into the interiority of self. Stories are paired with landscapes, each evoking similar feelings, to reveal how for those living in Tasmania, the island has become part of their psyche.

The stories are excerpts from conversations with people experiencing emotional, social or physical isolation in Tasmania, and are told by a single narrator. It is difficult to decipher where one story starts and the other finishes, suggesting that these are stories, both unique yet universal.

These narratives reveal that islands influence our way of being and are not able to geographically or psychologically change each other as our network of relationships are constantly evolving. Through this self-knowing and shared experience of place, we form our sense of belonging.

Art Gallery at Royal Park

23 September – 26 November 2023

This exhibition is now closed.