'The many phases of flight' — Bri Horne

Artist Statement

My artistic practice is tied sweetly and messily to my life practice. I’m deeply curious about the relationship between humanity, spirituality, and nature. My exploration is rooted in the knowing that it is all one, we are all one; while at the same time, holding the reality of the disconnection we are currently experiencing en masse. Art offers humans solace through presence, beauty, awe and curiosity, and acts as a vessel for change riding on the tides of connection.

Theme: SCAPE

I experience and connect with place by anchoring to presence, and creating from intuition. Each work is a culmination of working within the literal realms of photographic art, the sensitive realms of the inner landscape, and the fluid realms of the earth’s cycles. My inner landscape informs how I see and respond to the natural landscape, and vice versa. My works are less a curated representation, and more an embodied expression of one moment in time. ‘The many phases of flight’ was a moment captured during a phase of deep change in my life. I was holding myself through a practice of expanding capacity by getting in the cold bay water of Waurn Marrin every morning. I would submerge, get dry, get dressed, and sometimes feel the pull to capture a moment. On this occasion, I had a handful of shots left on the roll of film in my camera and the light on the water pulled me in. With one shot left, I felt the nudge to pause and wait. A breath later, the air was consumed by the squawk of a hundred sulphur-crested cockatoos and without even having the chance to pull focus, I threw the camera up and pressed the shutter. A moment of presence and awe experienced, embodied, and expressed through this unedited work that tells the story of the landscape both seen and unseen. ‘Of water, of earth’ was captured at the end of 2021 at Yiruk Wamoon (Wilson’s Promontory), on Gunaikurnai and Bunurong Country. My connection to this place is deep and long, spanning my entire life, running through my mother’s entire life, and her father’s life. This work is an exploration of embodying both the fluid of the water, and the calm of the grounded earth.

— Bri Horne, Shoreham