About this Artwork
Price: $295 AUD

In 2000 years time, what will be the new Nautilus?

That was the premise I started with for this piece after receiving a page titled ”Mounting the Bones of a Dinosaur”. Each ”vignette” represents a level in time of an archaeological dig.

Given I don’t have access to Edmontosaurus bones, even without the advent of COVID, I chose the Nautilus as the finding of a dig long ago. The Nautilus has long fascinated me with it’s exponential growth in relationship to the Golden Spiral and the Fibonacci sequence. It also represents the exponential growth of humankind.

The second vignette contains sea-worn terracotta pieces picked up on a trip to Italy. Representing both ancient cultures and the development of humans over time, it also represents a shift from nature into the man-made world.

The materials chosen – the natural composition of them – represent the Earth itself: the foundation of our existence. The shiny coldness of the parts within the final vignette – our current world driven by technology and consumerism – sits in opposition to the warmth and earthiness of the rest of the piece. Look carefully at the choice of computer parts use. What do they symbolically represent to you?

So, the questions remain: in 2000 years time, what will be the new Nautilus? And who will be doing the digging?

About Kate

Kate Karaula is a textile and fibre artist living in Bayside Melbourne. Having grown up at the base of The Dandenong Ranges, and then spending the last 15 years by Port Phillip Bay, her work is grounded in nature and the interplay it has with humanity and urban environments – harmonious, violent, symbiotic, at odds, beautiful, ugly, breathy and cramped – sometimes all at once.

Kate has explored multiple mediums over the years, including studying Photography at the Photography Studies College in Melbourne. This study has provided a foundation for her practice, both from the perspective of storytelling and concept development.

Sustainability, ethics and care for the environment play an integral part in Kate’s work. With art being one of the only ways to save the detritus of consumerism from landfill, Kate uses mostly deconstructed clothing, bolt ends and remnants in her works, along with thrifted yarns and self-made yarns, handmade felt and found objects. Where one person may see “waste” or “broken”, Kate sees potential; in a world that is lightning fast, she advocates for slowing down, both in the emotions invoked by her work and by creating many of her base materials from raw resources up.

View Kate’s Art Aviso profile HERE

Kate was provided with the following page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopedia:

Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopedia
Volume 1
The story of the World in the days of long ago.
Mounting the Bones of a Dinosaur – the age of reptiles.