This exhibition brings together the work of three artists – Tessa Beale, Bina Butcher Monsees and Phoebe Clarke – whose practices converge in the way that they approach the treatment of materials. The artists’ will use water as a material and focus due to its visual, sonic and tactile qualities.

Water is characteristically unbound and free whilst conversely still possessing a density and pressure. Furthermore, a body of water presents itself more visually as an environment within which we can see and feel a constant connection.
Water possesses the ability to demand of us to be present and this in turn elicits a physiological response.

The exhibition will be an extension of work developed through both current and previous residencies. It is an experimental investigation into the value we place on water as a material in our respective practices.

The works reflect their shared understanding of water through installation, sound, textiles and print questioning the value they place on water.

Tessa Beale (b. 1993) investigates the
potential of material properties to explore ideas of transformation and transition working across the mediums of print,
drawing, metal, sculpture and photography. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding natural environment, geology and flora she uses a process of collection and response, focusing closely on surfaces and details that are often overlooked. Tessa believes that materials have an intrinsic communicative value, which she seeks to explore in her work.

Since graduating from Curtin University with Honours in 2015, she has exhibited in a number of group, collaborative and
solo exhibitions both locally, interstate and overseas. This includes SIM in Iceland (2016), Mundaring Arts Centre (2015), Paper Mountain Gallery in Perth (2016/2017) and more recently Sawtooth ARI Gallery in Tasmania (2019) and Midland Junction Arts Centre (2018) where she was also an artist in residence. She has undertaken residencies both locally at Fremantle Arts Centre and internationally at SIM (Iceland, 2016).

Bina Butcher’s practice is a way for her to understand and reflect on the direct and immediate world around herself by
exploring unnoticed aspects of daily life and fleeting, ephemeral moments within the natural world. Impressions are left
within the environment; traces of life and movement now preserved in a static state. Butchers work aims to draw out unique moments, textures and surface qualities to enable quiet reflection and engagement with spaces we interact with on a daily basis which might otherwise go unnoticed. Primarily exploring the expanded field of printmaking, including photography, video, sound and sculpture, Butcher’s process lead practice encourages interaction with instances commonly overlooked and allows for reflection on transitory moments.

Since graduating from Curtin University (2016) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts,
Butcher has been involved in several group exhibitions and a Residency at Midland Junction Arts Centre (2018). She
has exhibited twice in the Fremantle Print Awards in 2016 and 2018, and most recently exhibited at Sawtooth ARI Gallery in
Tasmania (2019) alongside Tessa Beale.

Phoebe Clarke is a multidisciplinary artist based in Perth. Working across the mediums of sculpture, drawing, video and sound; Phoebe creates works and installations that hold focus in materiality, mark-making and intrigue that is obtained through subtle tactics of alienation. Her work is a visual investigation and experimentation in how she can
move between and on the border of the alienating and benign, seeking to produce small changes that persist their way onto
the viewers consciousness. The work Phoebe is presenting in the show has been developed throughout her recent residency
at MJAC exploring the use of texture, mass, and buoyancy to implicate an aquatic environment.