Jessica Rowe
My practice is driven by care for our natural environment, currently explored through trees and tree bark found in the City of Melbourne. This ongoing series investigates a concern for our changing climate through multiple mediums and installations, such as embossed bark onto paper, leaving a trace of disappearing trees. These are framed with copper and inscribed with red oxide powder, to align with a preciousness more often associated with other elements. Other works highlight our relationship to the environment via screenprinted emails written by strangers to specific trees, displayed alongside monoprints with bark, as an imagined response from the intended recipients. Additionally, the casting of bark texture into bronze and ceramic sculpture, seeks to make the impermanent, permanent, serving as a record of our changing urban environment.
Jessica Rowe, Install View. Image Courtesy: University of Melbourne.
Jessica Rowe, Install View. Image Courtesy: University of Melbourne.
Jessica Row,'(can't see the forest) for the trees...' (detail), 2023, embossed paper, copper, hand-dyed paper, copper foil, red oxide powder. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Jessica Row, '(can't see the forest) for the trees...' (detail), 2023, embossed paper, copper, hand-dyed paper, copper foil, red oxide powder. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Jessica Row, 'Dear tree...' (detail), 2023, screenprint, embossing and monoprint on paper. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Jessica Row, 'Dear tree...' (detail), 2023, screenprint, embossing and monoprint on paper. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Jessica Row, 'Dear tree...' (detail), 2023, screenprint, embossing and monoprint on paper. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Jessica Row, '(can't see the forest) for the trees...' (detail), 2023, embossed paper, copper, hand-dyed paper, copper foil. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Jessica Row, '(can't see the forest) for the trees...' (detail), 2023, ceramic on hand-dyed paper. Documentation by Nicole Smith-Walker.
Faculty of Fine Arts and Music
University of Melbourne