www.bronwynvaughan.com
Bronwyn Vaughan is an installation artist whose large-scale sculptural works tell stories about place. A long career in theatre has informed the performative nature of Vaughan’s installations. She sees her sculptures as sets, props and performers, activated by the presence of an audience, and the spaces they inhabit.
Girls of the Mahon tells a story of the Mahon Pool, Maroubra, using sculpture, installation and performance. Composed of four large sculptures - Bodies of Water, The Sea Inside, The Rocks Turn into Water and Hot Pink Support Structures - the work takes a deep dive into ideas about water, posthuman and material feminisms, and hydrofeminism.
Through an exploration of the embedded rituals performed by human and more-than-human beings at the Mahon, the work honours and celebrates this remarkable body of water. Vaughan’s artistic strategies and processes are embodied, repetitive and durational and are a form of ritual in themselves. Her materials include plumbing copper, urine, clay, gold glaze, seawater, deconstructed steel support structures, saris, stainless steel cable ties, batik, discarded costumes and old sarongs.
