Bundanon

Shoufay Derz’s practice, through photography, sculpture and video installation investigates thelimits and possibilities of language, and the ambiguities faced when attempting to visually articulate the inexplicable. Informed by contemporary framings of the sublime, cultural heritage, and memorialization, her work looks at the creative tension which is created by the dialogue between materiality and absence. Just as the writer uses words to express the ineffable, her practice engages the intersections between known and unknown worlds. The resultant, elegiac artworks are simultaneously a lament on the transience of life, and a celebration of its mystery. Elemental and alchemical, her works harness diverse materials including the life-cycle of silk moths, glass, metals, textiles, eucalyptus, ink and pure indigo pigment.

Derz’s residency included the research and development of new video, text and sculpture works inspired by the natural landscape of Bundanon and the Shoalhaven river. His works were later presented at Manly Art Gallery and Museum and Artereal Gallery, Sydney in 2018.