Here and Now: Gold Coast Triennial 2024 Digital Gallery
Norton Fredericks
b.1990 Ipswich QLD, lives Kombumerri Country Gold Coast QLD
Reverence, 2024
Fibres: (wool, silk, alpaca,cotton, flax, bamboo, koala, possum, dingo, kangaroo, wallaby, artists own hair, native beach hisbiscus) bronze, silver, gold, amber, rock, wood, sand, ceramic, seeds, botanical dyes, beeswax
Commissioned for Here and Now: Gold Coast Triennial
Image courtesy of HOTA, Home of the Arts
Artist Statement
In the palm of your hand, in your blood, you carry your parents and all generations of your ancestors that came before you. Each is present in your body along with their memories, joy, and trauma. This work is dedicated to ancestor veneration and is a physical exploration of intergenerational trauma in an attempt to understand and release emotional cycles. Reverence connects Norton to not only their personal histories but also to the lineage of their craft.
About the Artist
Norton Fredericks (they/ he) born 1990 in Tulmur, Ipswich is a queer visual artist and workshop facilitator. Norton has mixed European and Aboriginal Australian (Murri) heritage and currently lives on Kombumerri Country, Gold Coast. Their work is at the intersection of science and art, exploring the dialogue between environmental sustainability, queer ecologies and the human experience. Investigating these themes through research and practice-based artwork, Norton explores historical and ancient techniques in a contemporary way that is often site specific, responding to place and Country. As Norton examines how elements interact with materials, they use the mechanics of natural fibres, organic chemistry, and metals to imbue their work with geographical memory.
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