The work: Amanda Bennetts, The Body as Home, 2021. Print on Kyozo rice paper and encaustic wax, 18 x 12 x 9cm. Courtesy: the artist.
In her final year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Amanda Bennetts focuses on the intersections of art and science. With photo media, installation and projection works, Bennetts’ practice is process driven and heavily influenced by the environment and the human body. Using scientific apparatus, found objects and the chemical processes of film developing and emulsion lifts, she explores themes such as life, degradation and illness to further investigate the lived experience of bodily malfunction. “The body shelters us through life,” she says. “However, it can be fraught with fragility, degradation and disease.” Her work unpacks the idea of the body as a home – filled with memories both happy and sad, smells both sweet and rancid and objects both used and forgotten. A simple yet effective metaphor for life, Bennetts’ focus on the home beautifully translates the fleeting nature of life and the walls that protect us.