Bound by Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

Bound by Gorse (Ulex europaeus) is a curved wall of over 100 bricks made entirely of gorse (an invasive woody weed) collected in the Merri Creek catchment. To produce the bricks I adapted papermaking techniques, processing and reconstituting the gorse fibres into reproducible forms. I used the materiality of the gorse to bring forward a sense of the care practices and land ownership boundaries at the creek. The labour-intensive paper making process employs repetitive labour to produce multiple bricks. In turn this articulates time and process through matter. This expression of material time can also be understood as a labour of care. These methods, manifest in the reproducibility of the bricks, carried the experience of careful labour into the gallery. Accompanying the bricks was a digital photograph of the site where the gorse was collected. This image served to reveal the extent of gorse infestation and how, in the small section we cleared, a wooden fence post and wire was revealed.