Nicole O'Loughlin | Nature/Nurture

In 'Nature/Nurture', O'Loughlin explores her personal connection to the landscape as a woman and caretaker of her home and studio, and of the living world that surrounds it. She muses on the threat of bird flu as she considers her relationship with the birds and animals that flourish among the creeks and grasses. Through embroidered portraits, she depicts trees with an awareness that their existence has become increasingly fragile and unpredictable. The works themselves are devoid of the traditional substrate of cloth, held together and seemingly floating by thread.

Despite the climate anxiety that underpins these topical works, O'Loughlin threads her familiar irony and humour through each piece, marrying weighty ideas with ornate and carefully chosen materials and techniques. As she describes it, she is always "subverting that traditional kind of craft into contemporary culture".