Exhibition: Peta Armstrong, Parlour Games
"I was interested in making while locking onto memories of my maternal Grandmother’s home and garden that backed onto a lush overgrown gully in inner suburban Sydney.
The modest house was staged with curios. The dining table set with china teacups, dinner settings, a glass punchbowl, and other functional objects collected over a lifetime. Flocked wallpaper competed with homemade tapestries and a dense forest of indoor plants filled most rooms, with a sunroom being totally devoted to ferns. It was visually enthralling.
Every Saturday my sister and I were given free rein to explore the interior space, garden and adjoining gully. Most visits concluded under the house to play with a biscuit tin full of stones that had been tumbled smooth with a lapidary machine in the bathroom.
To protect these memories I have not verified any of the above recollections, instead luxuriating in them as I made the work."
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