Su Nelson

A “homeomorphic mutt” encompasses concepts of non-autonomous sovereignty and the importance of difference at the centre of emergent affinities. Borrowing from universal languages like alchemy and abstract mathematics, I explore questions such as “How can the parts of a whole transform, or be transformed by their own topology?”, “How does alchemical transformation symbolically echo a lived creative practice?”, and “How can provisionality and the preservation of ancient patterns co-exist in sculptural assemblage?”. In this sense, my sculptural art practice celebrates the unique properties, scars, and voices of scrappy remnants and diverse-but-interrelated material mash-ups. It is at once a reflection of my identity and a representation of a world in which I wish to live. Bodily listening is a core methodology that inevitably reveals emergent affinities across different materials and spaces, often capturing particular aspects of a space into sculptural form that plays with the simultaneity of figure and ground, enriching the act of nuanced noticing. It is an evergreen process of relating, rescuing, questioning, re-membering, re-cognising, and transforming that is not immune to the affects of its container (topology), nor is its container immune to evolving inner criteria that push against the great maw of collective norms.